A Tale Of Two Bros
by Ms. Perception
Summary: ...or The Totally Not Dorky but Awesome and Badass Bromantic Adventures of the Puckerone and Trouty Mouth. Part XI: Moments I. Full Summary inside.
1. When It Began

**A Tale of Two Brothers... aka The Totally Not Dorky but Awesome and Badass Bromantic Adventures of the Puckerone and Trouty Mouth**

**Summary:** When Sam starts noticing Puck is acting strangely, he takes it upon himself to help out. What follows is the beginnings of a friendship that would define them both.

**Pairings:** Samtana, Finnchel, Bartie, hints of Brittana and Puckleberry, Puck/Sam and Pezberry friendships

**Warnings:** No real spoilers involved in this story. It's obviously very AU as I just made up Sam's family life. So nothing really spoilery in here. Be warned, this fic does deal with a very sensitive issue (child abuse and domestic violence). It's not too graphic but it is mentioned.

**Disclaimer:** I in no way shape or form own Glee despite my continued efforts. I own Sam's brother Dean. And even that shtick is borrowed from Supernatural… which I also don't own. Sad now.

**Author's Note:** I've been on a writing kick since my desktop computer decided to die. I currently have like four stories written and was debating which one to post first. This one won thanks to the awesome cover of 'Friday' from the _Prom Queen_ episode. I seriously love those three so much. Anyway back to the story. This one is loosely based around events from my Operation stories but really has nothing to do with that series. It's a total standalone story with a focus on the friendship (that I totally wish would happen more) between Puck and Sam. Even though it's marked as complete I'm planning on adding more eventually (if anyone wants more, lol). So enjoy!

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><p>How it Began…..<p>

Something was wrong with Noah Puckerman. Aside from the obvious, there was only one problem with this situation. The only one that seemed to notice was Sam Evans. Sam and Puck had an odd kind of relationship in that Sam dated and was practically engaged to Puck's baby mama, who all but ignored Puck after meeting Sam. Sam was now currently dating another one of Puck's exes. They were in Glee together. They were on sports teams together. But they weren't exactly friends. This is why Sam found his sudden obsessive need to know what was going on with Puck very odd. Maybe it was just a nice distraction from the fact that his fake relationship with Santana was very rapidly becoming real… for him. Maybe he just felt bad for the self proclaimed badass who almost always isolating himself from the rest of the glee club. Whatever the case was, Sam was aware that there was something wrong with Noah Puckerman.

His first sign that there was something seriously wrong came at lunch one afternoon. Per the usual, it was Brittany, Santana, Artie, Puck and Sam. Initially Puck protested sitting with the couples saying he didn't want to be a fifth wheel. Sam would have told him that he shouldn't have felt awkward as he was sure that he and Artie could've disappeared and the two girls would have been fine. But he didn't because it was one thing to know it. It was another thing to acknowledge that Brittany and Santana were digging each other more than their boyfriends. Still, despite that one incredibly awkward topic, lunch was usually a fun time. Until the afternoon when Puck actually yelled at Brittany for chewing too loud.

Sadly, that wasn't when Sam realized that the problem was serious. That moment came when, instead of being hurt or offended, Brittany only apologized, patted him on the arm and promised to chew quieter. When Santana opened her mouth to no doubt bitch him out for snapping at Brittany, the blonde in question cut her off with a story about her cat who she now believed was stealing from the neighbors. Puck had listened mutely before slipping away from the table. That was the last time he ate with them.

Following the blowup at lunch, there were also incidents in his geometry class and two in glee practice. Everyone seemed determined to write this off as typical Puck behavior but Sam was convinced that there was something else going on. He got his confirmation a week after the lunch episode following football practice. Sam had learned fairly early in his high school career at McKinley that Puck had little to no shame. He was also quite secure in his own sexuality and pretty much non-caring about the sexuality of his teammates. This made changing in the locker room a fun yet awkward experience. Puck had been told repeatedly by their coaches that stripping on the field no matter how sweaty and gross he may feel was not necessary. He wouldn't lose valuable cleaning time by getting naked inside the actual locker room.

This afternoon, however, found Puck slowly trailing after the rest of the team as they headed back into the locker room. Sam noticed it but didn't have time to further contemplate this as he was supposed to meet with the coach after practice. It was a Friday afternoon and Sam was pretty certain that by the time he was finished meeting with the coach, everyone else would have cleared out. Which is why he was surprised to see Puck returning from the showers as he was entering the locker room.

"What… I thought everyone was gone," Puck stammered, cinching his towel tighter around his waist and looking strangely uncomfortable.

Sam shrugged. "Coach Bieste wanted to talk to me about scholarships for college." He frowned when he saw the almost white knuckled grip that Puck had on his towel. "Chill, dude. It's nothing you haven't shown us before."

Puck smirked and damn if it didn't just look fake. "I never knew you were looking, Sammy."

Sam rolled his eyes and went back to packing his stuff away. He hadn't played that afternoon due to his shoulder being hurt (again) and got to bypass the showers for once but he wanted to work out his shoulder during the weekend and needed some of his gear. He heard Puck shuffling around which meant that his friend finally started to get dressed. He glanced over his shoulder fully intending to ask if Puck wanted to practice this weekend with him but the words died on his lips.

Puck was facing his own locker with his back to Sam and oblivious to Sam's scrutiny. He finished with the towel and was already dressed in his jeans. He was sliding his t-shirt over his head but it wasn't quick enough to hide the vivid black and blue marks on his back. There were also angry red welts crossing his lower back. It was almost like he had been… whipped? Sam's eyes widened and a surprised gasp of air escaped before he could stop it. He turned around quickly, pretending to inspect his locker.

"You say something, Evans?"

"No, I didn't say anything," he forced himself to stay light. "You hearing things, Puckerman?"

Puck snorted and slammed his locker shut. "I'll see you later, Sam. I gotta get home before my sister or my mom will legit kill my ass."

Sam managed a nod even as his mind went into overdrive. Puck had said things similar to this in the past. However, his recent change in behavior and the bruises led Sam to believe there was something more to this than Puck merely joking. Long after Puck left, Sam was still sitting on the bench in front of his opened locker thinking. He really wasn't aware he had been sitting there that long until he heard a hiss coming from the doorway.

"Psst. Is there a clear coast?"

Sam would've been confused if it was anyone other than Brittany asking that question. Instead he merely smiled a bit and looked at the tall blonde who was currently poking her head in the partially opened door of the boy's locker room.

"What's up, Britt?" he motioned with his head for her to join him. She walked in and sat down beside him on the bench. She looked at him with the sparkly eyes of doom (as he heard Mike and Puck referring to them before). Those eyes made it nearly impossible to turn her down. It made it impossible to hate for most likely stealing his girlfriend too. With a deep sigh he turned towards her, resigned to do whatever she asked.

"Are you going to fix Puck?"

Sam paused in surprise. "What do you mean?"

"He's sad all the time now. And more grumpy than normal. Hugs don't even work anymore. I tried to hug him this morning but he wouldn't let me. He just walked away. Puck always hugs me."

Sam felt a knot twist his insides. There was a very obvious answer that all of the clues were pointing towards but he just couldn't believe that Puck's mom was beating him. Not just because Puck was a male. It was just that it was Puck. And he just couldn't imagine Puck being that physically intimidated by a woman (Lauren didn't count because Sam was convinced that she was really a dude or at least possessing a larger than usual amount of dude like tendencies and besides, that had had been over for months thanks to the unholy duo). No, there was something else they weren't seeing here but Sam was determined to get to the bottom of it. He gave Brittany a hopeful smile.

"I'm not really sure what's going on. But I know some people that might have an idea." He reached over and gave her a hug, mostly to make up for her missed hug from Puck and also because Brittany seriously gave the best hugs. He knew Puck must have been really out of it to turn down one of those hugs. This did not bode well. After promising her once again, that he would try to figure out what was wrong with Puck, Sam left the locker room to find his sources for all information Puck.

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><p>His sources were none other than his very 'it's complicated' girlfriend and her new best friend, Rachel. He found the two girls in the auditorium working on their song choice for whatever assignment that Will had assigned that week. He struggled to remember what the assignment was much less who his partner was. Oh yeah, it was Puck. Well, they were obviously going to blow that assignment. He shook it off and walked towards the two girls that were clearly talking more than practicing. The pair was unlikely as best friends but once they had teamed up, it was difficult to remember why. The unholy duo, as they were commonly referred, was scarily similar to one another. They sat up in unison once they heard him walking up to the stage.<p>

"Hey, Sammy," Santana smiled and he tried to ignore that his heart skipped a beat at the sight. He couldn't repress the urge to smile however. "Practice done already?"

"For a little while," he shrugged. He nodded towards Rachel. "Hey, Rach."

"Hello, Sam," Rachel tilted her head to the side, eyeing him critically. "Is everything alright? You seemed to be preoccupied."

"I'm fine… I just," he ran a hand through his hair. "I had a question about Puck actually. What's his relationship with his mom like?"

Santana snorted. "What relationship? She barely tolerates him since the whole Beth thing. Add in juvie and he's lucky if she speaks to him during the day."

Rachel nodded sadly. "Mrs. Puckerman's mothering skills do appear to be somewhat lacking. I think it was before Beth honestly. I think it was around the time Noah's father left for good. She never really forgave him for making those accusations."

"What accusations?"

Rachel sighed. "A few days after Mr. Puckerman left town, we were all at the JCC. One of the counselors asked why Noah wasn't more upset about his father leaving. Noah said that he wasn't sad because his father was an abusive drunk. Naturally there was a big scene and his mother got involved. He recanted the story later on but I do believe that he was telling the truth."

"He probably was," Santana grumbled. "I met Mr. Puckerman when we were kids. Puck always used to tiptoe around his dad, like he was scared of him. And that's the same kid that thought nothing of blindly charging into shit when he was that age. I didn't like his dad."

"Why did you want to know about Noah's mother?"

"You two noticed anything odd about him lately?"

"We really haven't been spending that much time with Puck," Santana admitted guiltily. Rachel suddenly found the tip of her shoes to be very interesting. Sam felt really bad for bringing it up in the first place.

The truth was that Santana and Rachel wouldn't really be friends if it wasn't for Puck. He was the initial catalyst for their friendship and the thing that had been holding it together during the summer between their junior and senior year. But when the inevitable reunion between Finn and Rachel happened during that same summer, Puck stepped back. Something about a promise he made to Finn. Santana was willing to step back with him but Puck made her "fucking promise to stay BFF with the fucking midget". Santana had been less than pleased with that development. Though it was hard to see the evidence of that lately.

"Don't worry about it, Rach," Sam said in his best assuring voice possible. "It's probably nothing. He just seemed a little off lately. I'll talk to him later. It's probably no big deal." He would look back on those words in a few hours and kick his own ass for totally jinxing it.

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><p>There were a few basic facts about Puck that pretty much everyone knew. He had a little sister named Sarah. He had a mother who worked at the hospital. And he had a father that skipped town when Puck was eight. Almost everyone knew who knew Puck knew that story whether he told them or not. Sam was made aware of this story shortly after Puck was sent to juvie. It was told as a way of almost justifying why Puck was a bad seed that had to be put away for the safety of all. Sam felt that it was actually a justification for all the crap Puck had pulled through the years but Sam wisely kept that opinion to himself.<p>

He also wished that he had just kept his thoughts to himself and minded his own damn business the first time he noticed Puck acting oddly. If he had, then he wouldn't be sitting outside Puck's house in his car on a Friday night when he could be enjoying make out time with his increasingly more real (for him) girlfriend. But no, he was bordering on stalking a guy that was barely his friend. And if he didn't give any information when he saw Santana later that weekend, he knew that he would be cut off for months.

"This is so stupid," he muttered aloud. "I should just go."

And yet, he couldn't seem to find the will to turn the key in the ignition. He drummed his fingers on the steering wheel and tried to figure out what he was supposed to be doing. He didn't know what he was thinking coming out here. He couldn't very well just waltz up to Puck's front door and accuse his mother of physically abusing her son. That wouldn't end well for him in several, very painful ways. He also didn't think trying to have a hallmark moment with Puck would work either.

"This was a really bad idea, Sam. A really, really bad idea."

As he was finally turning the key in the ignition to drive away, the front door of the house slammed open and a furious Puck was storming down the driveway. An older man followed quickly after him. Sam's eyes widened as the man grabbed Puck's arm roughly, yanking him back towards the house. Puck shoved him off and made to walk away again when the man punched him in the face. Puck fell down and stayed down. Sam moved on autopilot at that point. Logic left and instinct took over. He raced out of the car and stepped between the man and his fallen teammate.

"Evans, what the fuck are you doing here?" Puck grunted.

"Honestly, I have no idea. Are you okay?"

Puck pushed himself up and groaned. "Yeah, I'm fine. Now you need to go."

"Seriously, dude? Not leaving you to get your ass kicked by… who is this guy?"

Now that he was closer, Puck really didn't have to answer that one. Sam's proximity to the man let him see the answer for himself. He had Puck's eyes and smirk. Though Sam couldn't recall ever seeing Puck look quite as menacing as this man, even at his worst. The man was basically an older, less physically in shape and totally drunk off his ass version of Puck.

"He's my dad," Puck confirmed, quietly. Sam felt him put a hand on his back. "Just go home, Sam. I'll see you Monday."

"No," Sam repeated. Puck's father was watching the pair talking with amusement glistening in his eyes. Sam could smell the alcohol on his breath. Suddenly the pieces that were missing before were coming together to form a clearer picture and from that picture he was able to find one very easy solution. He shifted so that he could see Puck slightly but kept one eye on the elder Puckerman. "Where's your sister?"

"At my Nana's house."

"Perfect!" Sam spun on his heels, grabbed a hold of Puck's shoulder and steered his sort of friend away from his house and towards the car.

"Noah! You get your ass back here!" Puck's dad roared, though he made no move towards him. Witnesses were a tricky thing. You could beat your son into keeping quiet but it was a little more difficult with someone else. "Boy, if you leave, you better not think about coming back! You hear me?"

Sam felt Puck tense and tremble slightly but he let Sam continue to guide him towards their getaway vehicle. Sam made sure he was in the car before running around to the driver's side. He didn't bother to listen to the expletive filled threats that Mr. Puckerman was throwing their way as he sped away from the house. He also didn't bother to think about where they were supposed to go now. He had pretty much kidnapped Puck from his abusive father. The father that was not supposed to be here. The same father that left nine years ago but was clearly back and still an abusive drunkard.

"How long has he been back?" Sam asked, breaking the heavy silence in the car. Puck continued to stare out the window in pretty much the same position Sam had dropped him in. "Dude, answer me! How long has he been back?"

"Since July."

"And how long has he been hitting you?"

Puck sat up at this and Sam didn't need to look to know that he was glaring daggers at the side of Sam's face. "Let's get something clear, Lady Lips. I'm not some wimpy kid who gets beat by his dad or anything like that. He's just… an angry drunk. I happen to be the thing that pisses him off the most."

"Are you seriously trying to justify him hitting you?"

"Shut the fuck up! You don't know anything about me."

"I know that you're too smart to actually think this is okay!" Sam countered. "You're not wimpy but he's definitely hitting you and that's called abuse. It's not okay."

"You read Ms. P's pamphlets again, huh?" Puck asked, with what was supposed to be a teasing edge. But it came out a touch too bitter. Puck's leg was shaking and he kept shifting in his seat. "Why were you even there tonight?"

"You didn't hug Brittany."

"What?"

"You didn't hug Britt. You know how she is about hugs. She was really upset and she asked me to fix you," he sighed, knowing he'd have to tell the whole truth if he was going to get anywhere with Puck tonight. "Also… I saw them."

"Saw wha…" Puck trailed off. "I knew you fucking watched me change. So you like what you saw or something?"

"Stop trying to change the subject! And stop making this a fucking joke. It's not funny," Sam yelled. He pulled the car to a stop on the side of the road and stormed out of the car.

He didn't really mean to yell but this was way beyond his scope of understanding. He really wasn't sure how he was supposed to be responding to this. What was he supposed to do? Wasn't he supposed to tell an adult he trusted or some crap like that? But really what adult did any of them trust? Their guidance counselor would probably have a heart attack at the thought of potentially being near someone as rank as Mr. Puckerman. And well Puck wasn't Finn, so Mr. Schuster's attention would be fairly limited as far as this was concerned. Coach Bieste might be a viable option but he wasn't sure that Puck really trusted her. He strangely didn't know the majority of his teachers but doubted that any of them would be much in the way of supportive.

"You know you make this face like a constipated monkey when you think?" Puck's voice dragged him out of his circuitous thoughts. He looked up to see that Puck was now sitting on the hood of his car. He looked strangely vulnerable sitting hunched over on the car. His legs were still bouncing and his good eye darted around as if he was looking for his father. Sam drifted towards him. "So I didn't think girly freak outs was supposed to be your thing. I thought I was the one that's supposed to be sobbing my eyes out and shit."

"When was the last time you cried?" Sam snorted in mild amusement.

"I'm too badass to cry, Sammy. I thought you knew."

Sam just shook his head. After a few minutes, he sat down on the hood beside Puck. "I'm sorry."

"For what?"

"How I reacted just now. Being there. Making you leave with me. That your dad is a major douche. I don't know. Whatever you want me to be sorry about."

Silence stretched on for what seemed like an eternity. But for once, Sam was okay with the silence. It was almost comfortable. And then Puck spoke.

"Beth."

"You want me to be sorry about Beth?" Sam asked in confusion.

"No, dumbass. That was the last time I cried. The day that Shelby and Quinn signed the papers and I didn't get to say goodbye to my daughter. That was the last time I cried."

Sam raised an eyebrow. "All the stuff that happened in between that and now and you haven't cried since then?"

"Dudes don't cry."

"Sure we do," Sam shrugged. "We have tear ducts and we have emotions therefore we're biologically capable of crying. My brother told me that it was okay to cry."

Puck was silent again. When he opened his mouth, Sam was certain he was going to mock him. He was pleasantly surprised. "When was the last time you cried?"

"There have been a few embarrassing moments here and there but nothing major. The last time I really cried was a year ago after I found my parents died and I had to move in with my brother. It seems so freaking stupid now but back then I was more upset about transferring schools than my parents being dead. I guess I was just using that as an excuse."

Puck turned his head towards Sam. "I never knew that, Sam. I'm sorry."

"For what?" Sam asked, teasingly. "It happened and my life changed. I got put in a new school and it turned out not to be the huge disaster I thought it would. Life without my parents is hard but bearable. I guess I just got used to things. And then when that happened, things just got better one day. It stopped being the end of the world."

"How? How did it get better?"

Sam shrugged again. "Honestly, I think it was because of my brother. He took me in and supported me through the worst of it. Sometimes I don't really think I would have gotten through everything without him."

"What if… what if you don't have someone? What if you're alone?"

Sam craned his neck to better see his sort of friend. Puck was staring intently at his hands. Sam bumped against the other teen's shoulder. "Dude, you're not alone. You got a shit deal with your parents but you've got friends."

"Really? Like who?" Puck asked, bitterly. "Finn? He only cares about himself. My dad could waltz in the room beat the shit out of me in front of him and Hudson would probably only ask if he could have an extra turn on the X-Box while I finish bleeding."

Sam raised an eyebrow at the particularly venomous response. While Sam was definitely not a fan of Finn, he didn't think that Puck had an issue with him as well. They always seemed to be close. Then again if the best friend who supposedly forgave you for everything that happened during Babygate couldn't stand to let you hang out with his girlfriend who just happened to be one of your very close friends that might be a sign that your friendship is not as a solid as you thought. And while Finn wasn't exactly a brain trust, few people understood that Puck was not the dumbass he pretended to be. Even he had to see that Finn wasn't the best friend ever. But that led to a new question.

"Why are you friends with him?"

"Not a whole lot of people lining up to be my friend. I'm an asshole. People either fear me or hate me. It's one or the other. Sometimes I'm lucky and it's both. No one in this shit town cares about me outside of making sure that I'm not stealing something or banging their moms or sisters. Or all of the above."

"Bullshit."

"What?"

"That's bullshit."

"How do you figure?"

Sam gave him a look that clearly called into question his intelligence. "I think that hit to your head was worse than we thought. Do you not remember that I just jumped in the middle of you and your dad while he was trying to beat the shit out of you? Brittany went into the boys' locker room just to make sure that I knew something wasn't right with you. Santana had to physically restrain Rachel from trying to follow me when I left school this afternoon. And Santana listened to your stupid ass request that she stay friends with Rachel even though that clearly left you the odd man out."

Puck opened his mouth to protest but nothing came out. He closed his mouth and stared down the road. Sam took the opportunity to actually look around at where they were. Somehow they ended by the lake. He had only seen this place once but it was definitely a great place to think. And potentially engage in the biggest chick flick moment of their lives.

"Look, dude, you're not alone, no matter what you think. You have people that care about you outside of Finn. There's Artie, Mike, Rachel, Santana and Brittany. And if for some reason all of those people fail, you still got me."

Puck sniffed quietly. His gaze fell down to his hands again. "When he came back, he promised things would be different. My mom trusted him. She fell for his bullshit and let him back in. He was different for a month. And then it all fell apart again. He started drinking because he couldn't find a job. When he drinks… well you saw. Everything about me pisses him off. It always has. So he just….. Yeah."

"Why don't you stop him? You could totally fight him off."

"I can't," Puck replied, sadly. "I try and I just fucking freeze. I don't know." Puck ran a hand through his Mohawk. "Thanks."

"For?"

Puck didn't reply. He just waved a hand in the air. Sam nodded in understanding. Puck was thanking him for several things. For rescuing him, listening to him and the most important not mocking him.

"It's what friends are for."

"Friends?"

"Yes, friends," Sam repeated, firmly. "That means I got your back and you got mine. Right?"

Puck nodded slowly. He kept his eyes trained on the ground. It was only because Sam was looking down as well that he saw the first teardrop land. He didn't say a word as the others followed quickly. He simply scooted closer to Puck so that their arms were touching. Sam wasn't always that great with academics, but people he did understand. And he knew that with Puck, it was all about the actions. He could say anything but it wouldn't mean a thing to Puck at all. But sitting there with him while he cried and not teasing him about it later? Priceless.

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><p>In the end Puck didn't go back to his parents. Puck was almost suicidal in his determination to go back to home as he didn't want to give the people in their town any more reasons to gossip about him or his family than they already did. Sam did not see this as a valid reason to allow his friend to return to a household where the people were actively physically and emotionally abusive. He hadn't expected Puck to show any common sense in that regard. So he made a very dangerous gambit. While Puck was busy buying a slurpee and dip at the 7-11, Sam snapped a quick picture and sent it along with a brief explanation to Santana and Rachel. As he expected, both girls were knocking on the window of Sam's parked car less than twenty minutes later. Puck was not pleased. He was especially less pleased when Hiram Berry appeared hovering over his daughter's shoulder.<p>

If Sam were a more sensitive person, he probably would have spent the entire weekend brooding over the look of hurt and betrayal that Puck sent him before being shoved into the Berry's car by the overprotective father and daughter combo. He instead spent half of the weekend brooding over the look. The rest of the weekend was devoted to the venomous words that preceded the look. Santana had arrived with Rachel and her father so Sam was stuck giving her a ride home. She sat with him in silence on the drive to her house holding his hand as he replayed his actions over and over trying to reassure himself that he had made the best decision.

"You did the right thing," was the only thing she said as pressed a kiss against his the corner of his mouth and got out the car. He hoped she was right. He knew that if he hadn't sent that message Puck would have gone home and he would have let the abuse continue. But it was hard to think that way when the guy you just promised to always be there for totally called you every name under the sun and gave you that look. The look was like he gave Puck a puppy and let him love it before killing it right in front of his face. And he officially had even more disturbing images to obsess over.

By Monday, Sam was convinced that he had screwed things up irrevocably and was no better than Finn when it came to the friend thing. He was pretty certain that Puck was probably never going to speak to him again, which was a very depressing thing. Still as far as he was concerned, it sucked a lot but Puck was safe. That made it worth it. He guessed. Didn't it?

"You know, you still look like a constipated monkey when you're trying to think."

Sam blinked at the sudden vocal intrusion into his thoughts. Standing against his locker was the subject of his weekend brooding. His right eye still looked swollen but it was the only mark on his face. That meant that Puck stayed with Rachel and her dads this weekend.

"So you're not kicking my ass. That's good, right?"

Puck smirked lazily. "No, I'm not kicking your ass, Sammy." He looked down at his shoes for several long moments. "Do I actually have to apologize? Because to be honest, I'm not really good at it and it kinda makes me itch."

Sam snickered and shook his head. He felt a weight lift off his shoulders at the causal words. "Well, we wouldn't want that. Besides real friends don't need to say they're sorry. It's just kinda understood."

"I like that," Puck nodded. He shifted over to allow Sam access to his locker. "But real friends can say 'thank you' right?"

"Yeah, if they need to."

"I need to. Thank you, Sam. For letting Rach and Santana know what was going on."

"No problem. What did Rachel's dad say?"

"He agreed about me and Sarah not going back home. My nana is willing to take in Sarah since she's a girl and all, but I think she really doesn't want me there. My mom's been telling her stuff about me for years. So Mr. Berry suggested that I get emancipated. He said it didn't make much sense for me to go into the system being as I'm eighteen in like ten months."

"So where are you going to live?"

Puck shrugged with one shoulder. "I guess I'm crashing in the Berry's guestroom until I find something more long term. As you can guess, Finn has already had some choice words about that idea."

"You saw Finn?"

"He came over to pick Rachel up on for a date on Saturday. He saw me talking with her dad about the whole emancipation thing and flipped out. Typical Finn shit."

Sam frowned at the resignation in Puck's voice but chose to stay out of it. He was starting to see the cracks in the friendship between Puck and Finn and he didn't like what he saw. True, Sam had his own reasons to strongly dislike (okay, hate) Finn Hudson, but he was starting to see that Finn was a huge hypocrite and not the golden child that everyone (including Puck) made him out to be.

"I think I have an idea," Sam said, leaning back next to Puck. "My brother's been talking about renting out the extra bedroom for awhile now. What if we rent it out to you?"

"You know I can't pay much, right? I don't exactly have a job. And between my parole and the emancipation thing, I can't exactly do what I used to do to get money." Sam so didn't want to know what exactly Puck used to do to get money. He'd heard the rumors. They were bad enough. He didn't need confirmation.

"Let me worry about that," Sam smirked. "I'll make a call and get back to you during lunch. Okay?"

Puck looked at him worriedly. "Why are you doing all this for me? I mean you've really been there since everything went down on Friday. Why?"

"Because I know that if it were the other way around, you'd do the same for me."

"How do you know that?"

"Because I'm starting to get to know you!" Sam called out over his shoulder as he walked away. He heard Puck scoff and caught the flash of a smile as the other boy turned to walk towards his own classes. Sam didn't think he was wrong. The more time he spent around Puck, the more he started to see that the badass persona was just that. It was a persona and not a reflection of the real man underneath it. Sam was determined to make the rest of the world (or at least the rest of the gleeks) see what he saw.

True to his word, Sam did call his brother during his free period. And much as he expected, Dean was very accepting of the idea of Puck moving into the spare room. Sam gave what he hoped would be a reasonable price. Dean was less accepting of that and offered up another price with no negotiations. Sam just hoped that Puck would be able to deal with that. He supposed he would just have to make the offer in a way he couldn't refuse. And he found his solution to that dilemma as he finally entered the cafeteria and found his newly minted friend sitting sandwiched between Brittany and Santana. Brittany had her arm looped through his and was clearly forcing him to remain seated. Rachel was also at the table with Finn sitting practically on top of her. Perfect.

"You're late, Trouty Mouth," Santana pouted, playfully as he sat down beside her. "I had to go in the boys' bathroom to force Puck out of hiding because you weren't here."

"I'm sure that was a new and horrible experience for you," Sam deadpanned. "You were probably scarred for life."

"You doubt my purity and innocence?" Santana raised an eyebrow. Sam threw her a look that had her giggling. In moments like this, it was hard to remember that they started this for all the wrong reasons. He secretly loved moments like these. These moments gave him a feeling of hope that maybe it could be more one day. But their moments were almost always over way too soon. "So what were you up to anyway?"

"Finding Puck somewhere to live," he replied, casually stealing a carrot from Rachel's tray. The Broadway bound diva was too surprised by his words to reprimand his actions. The badass in question looked up quizzically. "So I talked to my brother and he agrees that you should come live with us. We have the space."

Finn looked between the two suspiciously before settling on Puck. "You need a place to live, dude? You didn't tell me."

Puck didn't bother to hide the eye roll. "Uh, remember Saturday in between the pauses you took yelling at me for being near Rachel without your permission or whatever, we all tried to explain that I can't live at home anymore."

Finn's brow furrowed and Sam could tell he was actually trying to remember this conversation. The blonde shook his head. Finn could be painfully slow.

"So this living arrangement," Rachel started, bringing them back to the issue at hand and away from Finn's constant attempts at winning the Douchebag of the Year award. "Is this a permanent thing?"

"Sure, until we go to college," Sam answered, reaching for another carrot. She caught him this time but still allowed him to have the carrot. "You'll have to pay rent though."

"Like how much?"

"How's a dollar a month?"

Puck narrowed his eyes. "Don't you guys have anything better to do with that space than give it to a charity case?"

"Probably," Sam shrugged. "But think of all the karma points we're racking up by taking in your sorry ass." Sam grinned and raised an eyebrow. "So you in or what?"

Puck smiled, like an actual happy smile. "Yeah, dude. I'm in."

"Great. Now that's settled, we have to work on our assignment for glee. I don't want the wrath of Schue coming down on us."

"I have a few suggestions based off your vocal ranges and combined talent," Rachel spoke up. Sam and Puck exchanged a wordless look and nodded.

Rachel practically bubbled over with joy. Clearly, not many people listened to her suggestions. But as she spoke, explaining why she thought the song 'Details in the Fabric' by Jason Mraz and James Morrison would be perfect for them, Sam didn't understand why. She was really good at this stuff. He also noticed that Puck hung onto every word she said with an interest that was just a little too intense to say they were just friends. He smirked. He wondered if Puck even knew how in love he was with Rachel. He also wondered if Rachel knew how in love with Puck she was. Judging by the frequent eye contact with him, Sam was betting that she did but wouldn't admit to it. Those two were kind of cute.

"You did good, Sammy," a voice whispered in his ear. "Thank you for being there for him." He smiled as he leaned against Santana's head that was now resting on his shoulder. Theirs hands clasped and interlaced under the table. He started feeling hopeful again. Maybe he could get what he wanted. Maybe there was a future for him and Santana after all.

"By the way, we're helping Britt this weekend. She's staking out the house to make sure that the cat's not actually stealing stuff. Turns out she's got an X-Box and she definitely didn't buy it."

Sam arched an eyebrow. Maybe he should be more concerned about that probable future with Santana. He glanced over her head towards Puck who was trying, and failing, to resist Brittany's pleading gaze. Ultimately, it was a losing battle and both knew they were giving up a few hours of their lives to stalk a cat. But they would at least be together in their suffering. Might not be so bad after all.

* * *

><p>*The end for now.<p> 


	2. In Treatment

"The Totally Not Dorky but Awesome and Badass Bromantic Tales of the Puckerone and Trouty Mouth"

**Summary:** Through therapy with Emma, Puck is more in touch with his feelings and realizing just how out of touch with their feelings his friends were. Case in point the recently split Sam and Santana. Well that just won't do. So it's Puck to the emotional rescue.

**Pairings:** Samtana, Finnchel, Bartie, Klaine, Chang-squared and Wemma. Hints of Puckleberry. Puck/Sam, Pezberry and Quick friendships

**Warnings:** No real spoilers involved in this story. It's obviously very AU as I totally made up Sam's family life. So nothing really spoilery in here. Be warned, this fic does deal with a very sensitive issue (child abuse and domestic violence). It's not too graphic but it is mentioned.

**Disclaimer:** I in no way shape or form own _Glee_ despite my continued efforts. I own Sam's brother Dean. And even that shtick is borrowed from Supernatural… which I also don't own. Sad now. I also do not own the rights to Christina Aguilera's _Mercy on Me_ or Gavin Rossdale's _Love Remains the Same_. I just own them on my iPod. That counts for something right?

**Author's Note:** Here we are with part two of _A Tale of Two Brothers_. Thank you to all those who reviewed the first chapter. I greatly appreciate the support and feedback. This one is little more focused on Puck. But there are still moments between him and Sam. Can't ignore their bromance. And I know that a lot of people have picked up my habit of being less than positive towards Will. So I tried to change that up a little in this story. My hope is that he'll get it together in the third season. I also have song lyrics in here. I tried to keep it to a minimum but they're important to the plot. So you can just skip over them for those that hate reading song lyrics in stories. Also in order to understand why Dean is bothering the boys at night time, it helps to have some understanding of the show _The Waltons_ and their never ending good nights. Ok, so I think I've said about everything I need to say. Hope you all enjoy!

* * *

><p>Being in therapy is an interesting experience. Especially if you actually open yourself up and talk about the things that really affect you. For seventeen years, Noah Puckerman had learned the fine art of burying everything under layers of sarcasm, vulgarity, cougars and terrible impulse control. As far as he was concerned, he was fine. There was no need for a change in the routine. And then he met Sam Evans, who implanted himself in Puck's life and changed everything. Now all of sudden those old defenses didn't work. He had someone who saw right through them. And without his defenses he felt weak, vulnerable and exposed. And this is exactly where the idea for twice weekly counseling sessions came from.<p>

As expected, Puck was visibly (and vocally) reluctant to spend more than five minutes in a room alone with Ms. Pillsbury. He had a feeling that everything about him disturbed and disgusted the woman. She was afraid of germs and he was a teenage boy with a reputation that would make most guests on Jerry Springer blush. He wasn't looking forward to talking to a woman that would be eyeing the can of Lysol on her desk with something akin to longing the entire session. He also just didn't want to open up to anyone. He was fine. But apparently, he wasn't because Sam kept pushing, even going so far as to literally pick him up (he had help from those traitorous so off his friends list bastards, Mike and Blaine) and all but throw him into Ms. Pillsbury's office with a promise that he'd be back in an hour to get him.

That first half hour of the session was awkward as Puck vacillated between hostility and silence. Oddly, it was Ms. Pillsbury that broke the cycle.

"I know you don't want to be here, Noah. And I know that you think that Sam is forcing you into this. But let's make a deal. We try this for two weeks. And if you don't think its working then we can spend this time going off campus anywhere you want."

Puck raised an eyebrow. "You're not going to force me to talk?"

"No. Would it even work if I tried?"

And on that day, Puck learned a valuable lesson: Ms. Pillsbury was way cooler now that she was taking medication to control her OCD and was getting some regularly from Mr. Schuster. Puck agreed to the terms of her deal, content in the knowledge that he would soon be getting at least two free periods a week. He was working through the first week of the deal when he reached his breaking point. During glee.

"How are you feeling, Puck?"

It was really his first glee practice since he moved in with Sam. He was forced to miss the past few practices as he had to finish up all the legal aspects of moving out. His parents were of course fighting this every step of the way. So it was all becoming a headache inducing mess. He really didn't have time to deal with all of that and classes and extracurricular activities. So he dropped glee and football for a few weeks. Sure he'd seen the majority of the gleeks while in school but he really hadn't given them any time to ask questions and tell him how sorry they were that this was happening to him. Apparently, glee practice was plenty of time for them to continuously ask him how he was feeling.

"I'm fine," he barely suppressed a growl and shrugged his shoulder away from Mercedes' grasp. He knew they meant well. He knew they were concerned because they cared and blah blah blah but he really didn't want to hear it. Sam and Mike kept intervening, trying to distract everyone from their Puck shaped target, but with little success.

"Puck, we're just worried about you," Will tried to explain. "I mean you managed to hide this from us. We all care about you and want to make sure that something like this never happens again."

Had Puck been able to hear over his blood rushing in his ears, he probably would have heard both Sam and Mike uttering expletives and loudly wondering if Puck would actually hit a teacher. Santana had chimed in that clearly the butt chin, sweater vest wearing jerk deserved it. But Puck didn't hear any of that. He was grateful to Blaine's very colorful word by word replay the next day.

"You care about me?" Puck practically spit. "None of you give a shit about me except for like a few of you. You think I hid this? I practically screamed at you all to see it but none of you did. Because none of you cared! So I'm so fucking sorry if I don't want to hear all your empty acknowledgment and reassurances that I'm part of this 'family'. Fuck that. I'm so done."

"Noah, what are you saying?"

Puck's gaze shifted towards Rachel. For a fraction of a second, he felt the red recede. He felt himself calming and stepping back from saying something he would regret. That is until Finn put an arm around her shoulders in a possessive gesture. The red came back and he felt good about the next words that came out of his mouth.

"I'm quitting, Berry. That's what I'm saying. You don't need me now that we stole Blaine from the Warblers. You still have the twelve needed for competition. So now none of you have to worry about me. Simple huh?"

With that said he grabbed his bag and ran out of the room. He knew he had few options at this point. If he went to what he was calling home these days, he'd have to talk to Sam. Sam who would be disappointed and possibly take back his offer to live there. Also he'd have to wait for Sam as well because he no longer had a car. His parents were being assholes about giving him the truck that he paid for with his own money. So he was relying on Sam for rides to and from school. And as he wanted to avoid Sam, that meant he was staying on school grounds.

He found himself drifting towards the bleachers outside. It was an unusually chilly day in October and really wished he had enough sense to grab his coat before his diva storm out moment. Still he needed to think and the bleachers would let him do that. It was quiet over there. Or at least it was quiet until the self appointed Puck search party showed up on the field. He quickly darted underneath the bleachers where they couldn't see him. He didn't know what it meant that they were actually looking for him. But he just didn't want to face any of them right now. He didn't know if he could.

Ten minutes passed and eventually they gave up. He watched the dejected figures retreat and let out a small sigh of relief. A sigh that he took back less than a minute later when he felt someone sit down beside him on the grass and dirt covered ground. A decidedly female someone. They sat together in silence before finally Puck couldn't take it anymore.

"Ms. P?"

"Yes, Noah."

"You know we're sitting on the ground, right?"

"I'm aware."

"You know it's dirty, right?"

"That is dirt clinging to my skirt, yes."

"So why are you down here?"

"Because you are. And you looked like you needed someone to talk to."

Puck nodded. "I quit glee."

"I heard," the woman replied, quietly. "Santana came into my office not long after you left the room. She pretty much ordered me to fix 'whatever stick crawled up Mr. Schue's ass and died' or she, Sam, Mike and Brittany were quitting too. After she left, I received similar visits from Artie, Blaine, Kurt and Rachel. Though they were a lot nicer than Santana, the message was still the same. So I figured I'd better find you before they decided to jump Will and burn his sweater vest collection as Kurt suggested."

"They all threatened to quit? Because of me?" he was just going to ignore that last part. That was extreme even for his friends. They knew how much Mr. Schue loved those sweater vests.

"They did and I do believe they mean it. You're important to them, Noah. They might not always show it in the right ways but they care."

"Then why was Sam the only one that saw it?"

"Because Sam knows what it feels like to be hurting and have the whole world going on around you. He didn't want you to talk to me just because that's what every adult tells you you're supposed to do. I used to talk to him too when he first transferred here. It helps to let it out, Noah. You've got a lot going on and no one saw that. I'm so sorry for that. But we see it now and now we want to help." She placed her hand over his. "Will you let us help?"

Puck stared at the pale hand on top of his. His guidance counselor was touching him. Like legit willingly touching him and not running away to grab a bottle of hand sanitizer. If she could overcome her OCD enough to sit on a dirty floor and touch a kid that most people regarded as a walking STI then he could suck it up and actually talk about his feelings.

"I think I can do that."

And talk he did. Once he took the lid off all those repressed feelings, he found it was difficult to put it back on. For two days a week, he spent an hour and a half talking with Ms. Pillsbury about everything from his mother's obliviousness to the abuse to the actual abuse to his need to be loved by someone. He cried more in the weeks following these sessions than he had in his entire life. But as Sam reminded him when he met him after every session, it was ok to cry. It was ok to get out of all the negative emotions that made you that sad in the first place. Sam was going to turn him into a girl at the rate they were going.

Despite the threat of turning into a girl, Puck came to value his therapy sessions. It was good for him to get out his true feelings and it was good for Ms. Pillsbury to be of assistance in more than just handing out pamphlets and advice on how to be cool. And now that he was more in touch with his feelings, Puck was aware of just how out of touch with their feelings some of his friends really were.

Case in point, his newly minted best friend and his sister from another mother. Sam and Santana were in a relationship for all the wrong reasons. Everyone knew that. They were so obvious in the beginning. Sam was dating Santana because he wanted to irritate Quinn. Santana was dating Sam because she wanted to throw it in Brittany's face. But what neither of them realized was that somewhere along the lines it stopped being about either Brittany or Quinn. The only problem was neither of them realized it was the same for the other one. Which is why he wasn't surprised to walk out of session one afternoon and find a dejected Sam waiting for him.

"What happened?"

"Nothing," Sam shrugged it off. "How was your session?"

"Good. Didn't cry today which is always an awesome thing. Now see I answered you honestly. You think you could do the same?"

"Puck, I…." Sam trailed off. "Yeah, you're right. It's not a big deal. It's just that Santana broke up with me."

"What? Why?"

"Why do you think? She got bored with this. She said Brittany wasn't getting jealous and so it wasn't worth it. So she dumped me."

Puck's brow furrowed. "Did something happen today?"

"Like what? I barely saw her all day. She and Rachel were working on some stupid project for their Civics class. I had to deal with Quinn most of the day."

"What happened with Quinn?"

Sam rolled his eyes. "What I wanted to happen in the beginning."

Puck nodded in understanding. It seemed that Quinn finally got on the jealousy bandwagon and wanted Sam back. Only problem was that Sam didn't want her back. Still he was confused as to why Santana would break up with Sam. She clearly liked, pretty much leaning strongly towards love, him. So why would she….

"Hey, I think I'm going to just catch the bus home. There's something I gotta take care of here first." Sam looked confused but nodded. Puck split away from him and raced down the hall towards the gym where he knew the answers to his question would be.

He didn't have to wait long as he reached the gym just as the last bell of the day rang. The doors opened and the Cheerios filed out. They sent him appreciative looks but he only had eyes for one Cheerio in particular.

"So who sent you? Sam or Santana?"

"Neither. My guess is that they're both too busy being sad and singing songs about broken hearts to figure out that you had anything to do with this," Puck replied, leaning against the wall opposite the gym. She went to stand in front of him. "So was it worth it?"

"Was what worth it?"

"Was it worth breaking them up? Did you get what you wanted out of that?"

Quinn blinked before forcing a smile on her face. "I don't know what you're talking about. It's late. I have to get home."

"Save it for someone who doesn't know you, Q. So answer my question. Did you get what you were looking for?"

"No," she hissed. "Is that what you wanted to know? No! I didn't get what I wanted. I'm still alone. He doesn't want me. He wants her! Why am I never number one?"

"You were his number one," Puck reminded her. "Until you got caught up in the same bullshit that Finn offers to everyone. You hurt Sam because you wanted to regain your popularity. You pushed him towards Santana. You don't get a right to be mad about that."

Quinn's eyes flashed. "You can't talk to me like….."

"I can't? Really? If anyone should be talking to you this way, it should be me. I have so much that I want to say to you. About you. But I won't. Not now. Because I'm not here about me or about Beth. I'm here because Sam and Santana are my friends. And I want them to be happy. When they were together, they were happy. You pulled your harpy act and broke them up. Fix this, Quinn."

"And what are you doing to do if I don't?"

Puck narrowed his eyes as he stared at the mother of his child. Really, that was the only reason he didn't hate Quinn. He had so many reasons to hate her but it was the memory of Beth and those few moments where he thought they could work it out and be a family. Now he realized that it was just his delusions speaking. There was no way he could've raised Beth. He still was reluctant to think that Shelby was going to be a better parent but undeniably, she had more resources than him. She would be able to give Beth the life he wanted her to have but couldn't give. The life he and Quinn were never meant to give her together.

"Quinn, I haven't asked anything of you since all of this went down two years ago. I stood by quietly and let you give away our daughter. I didn't fight when you left me that summer. I stopped talking to you in the hallways so that people would remember you how you used to be. I never mention her because I know that you would rather forget she ever happened. I stepped back when you started dating Sam because I thought he would make you happy. I didn't comment when you dumped him for Finn. I haven't asked for anything from you except this. So please just do this."

Quinn's bottom lip trembled. "You ruined my life."

"No, we ruined your life," Puck corrected. "We made the decision to have sex that night. Together. So that was our bad. But you ruined my life when you gave away my baby and only put your name on her birth certificate. So thank you for that. Just do this and maybe we can start being even for everything."

He pushed himself off the wall and walked away before she could respond. The truth was that it would be a very long time before he ever forgave Quinn Fabray for the mess that she made his life in sophomore year. But he knew there was still a part of her that was human underneath this HBIC front she'd been putting up since junior year. He just hoped that she'd find that human side again. However, one did not live the life he lived without becoming a bit pessimistic over time. He definitely wasn't going to put everything from this plan on Quinn and her waning humanity. This is why he had a part two to his plan. And as he expected part two of this plan was in his office. Perfect.

"Mr. Schue?" he asked, as he knocked on the door. "Do you think I could have a minute?"

"Sure, Puck. Have a seat," Will said, motioning to one of the empty chairs by his desk. "How are you? I mean…."

"It's cool, Mr. Schue. I'm fine. Things are going alright. Talking to Ms. P has helped me understand a lot of things."

"Good," Will smiled genuinely. "Not that I'm not always happy to see you but what can I do for you today?"

"I think that…. I want to come back," Puck replied, not surprised that he was actually telling the truth. "I miss Glee. I miss the others. True, I hang out with a lot of them but it's not the same. I'm tired of them feeling like they have to sneak around because they don't want the others to know that they're eating lunch with the defector."

"You're not a defector, Puck. You had your reasons to quit and I understand. You're not the only one that's been talking to Emma," Will grinned. "I know you're tired of hearing me asking how you're doing and I think I was doing that because I just felt guilty. But I just need you know that I'm so sorry that I never saw what was going on with you. I saw what everyone else in this school saw and I failed you. But I promise I won't make that mistake twice. I promise that I'm going to be here for you too, Puck. You're a part of this family too."

"Thanks, Mr. Schue." No, that was not a lump in his throat. He was simply choking on air. And his eyes were only watery because Will never dusted. His office was like allergy central.

"You're welcome. And New Directions is waiting for you whenever you feel like coming back."

Puck pushed aside the warm fuzzy feeling he got from hearing that. That wasn't important right now. Right now he needed to focus on his mission. He could be all girly and happy about being a gleek again later tonight.

"I actually had one more suggestion, if you don't mind."

"Go ahead."

"It's just that I know that I, and a lot of the others, have some issues going on and things that we want to say but can't always find the right words. I know that singing helps me sometimes and I was thinking maybe that could be an assignment. Everyone finds a song that expresses what they want to say to each other or to the world."

Will nodded. "Puck, that's a wonderful idea! I'll tell everyone tomorrow during practice. Would you be participating?"

"Yeah, I actually have something picked out already." Puck smiled a little wider. "Thanks again, Mr. Schue."

"No problem. Anytime, Puck. And I mean that. If you ever need to talk to someone, I'm here. You have my number. Call me if things get to be too much. Ok?"

Puck nodded again. And if he hugged Will a little before leaving, well that wasn't his fault. He totally blamed Sam for that one. It was totally his fault. Prolonged exposure to Sam Evans was proven to cause even the most badass of people to grow human feelings and a vagina. Just look at Santana.

* * *

><p>"So you had something to do with this new glee assignment, didn't you?"<p>

Puck blinked innocently at his best friend who was hovering in the doorway of his bedroom. "I have no idea what you're talking about."

Sam only raised an eyebrow and motioned for him to move over on the bed. Puck scooted over allowing Sam to sit Indian style at the foot of the bed.

"So does this mean you're coming back?"

"I guess it does. I told Mr. Schue I was thinking about coming back. After all, it feels like kind of a dick move to deprive you guys of my versatile talents."

"Yeah, you don't know how many times in the past few weeks we've found ourselves in need of an accordion."

"Damn straight!" Puck grinned, lacing his fingers over his stomach. "So what're you going to do for the assignment?"

"You mean who do I want to send a message to? You're so transparent."

"And you're so oblivious. Quinn screwed you again, dude. The reason she was hanging all over you was to make Santana jealous and to put it in her mind that one day you were going to dump her for Quinn."

"What?"

"Yeah, I talked to Quinn yesterday. It was the usual petty Ice Queen BS but whatever. You need to show San how you're feeling."

Sam was silent. He could practically see the cogs working in Sam's head. He shrugged and left Sam to his silent contemplation. A few minutes later, he felt Sam lie down next to him.

"What song are you doing?"

"The acoustic version of _The Kill_."

"Angsty, but appropriate," Sam murmured. "You know there's two guitars in that song?"

"Yeah, I know. I figured you help me with mine and I'll help you with yours."

"What makes you think that I need your help?"

"Dude, I'm like the serenade king. The only girl I haven't sang to in that club is Tina," Puck stared at the ceiling thoughtfully. "I wonder why. She's pretty hot underneath all that scary."

"Yeah, and she's totally dating Mike. You know our best friend?"

"There is that," Puck nodded. "Whatever. You help me with my performance and I'll help you pick a song that will have Satan practically begging you to come back to her."

"Really?" Sam asked, skeptically.

"No, not really. But at the very least she'll be open to taking you back."

"I can live with that," Sam shrugged. "You know I'm not getting up right? I'm way too comfortable right now."

"I figured. You know this is only just adding to Dean, Kurt and Blaine's theory that we're gay for each other."

Sam scoffed. "If I was gay for anyone, it definitely wouldn't be you. I'd like to think that I'd have better taste in guys than that."

"Let me guess, you'd go for Kurt."

"Who would you go for?"

"Blaine."

"You're only saying that because he's totally like your gay evil minion."

"You say that like it's a bad thing."

Sam snorted. "Good night, dumbass."

"Night, Sammy."

"Good night, John Boy!"

"Shut up, Dean!" the two boys yelled in unison.

* * *

><p>The next afternoon marked Puck's momentous return to New Directions. It had been three weeks since he left but it felt like an eternity. The gleeks had become his family somewhere along the way. Just being back in the choir room with the rest of the club talking excitedly filled a place in his heart that he didn't even know was empty. He smirked as he saw Rachel blabbering on about something to Finn, who was visibly not listening. He caught sight of Sam fidgeting with his guitar and talking with the rest of the band. He flashed his best friend a thumbs up and went to sit down on Rachel's free side. She jumped at his unexpected presence.<p>

"Noah!" she squealed and threw her arms around him. He hugged her quickly before Finn could start to protest and pulled away. "You're back?"

"Yeah, I'm back, Berry," he smiled at the obvious joy on her face. He nodded towards Finn who was hovering over Rachel's shoulder and glaring in Puck's direction. "What's up, Hudson?"

"So you're actually coming back? How long until you quit again?"

"Finn!"

Puck just snorted. "It's cool, Rach. He's got a point. It was really shitty of me to leave you guys like that. Sorry by the way. But everything was just pissing me off then. I'm back for good. Or at least until graduation."

Finn looked like he wanted to say more but Will stepped forward. The conversations slowly died down as all eyes shifted towards their teacher.

"Hey guys, I'm sure most of you have already noticed but Puck is back." There was a round of applause and raucous cheering that went miles at helping Puck understand that this was where he belonged. "Alright, settle down. Now today is the beginning of our assignments. Puck said he's willing to go today, along with Sam, Mercedes and Santana."

"You're performing?" Rachel asked in a whisper.

"Duh, I'm a gleek, right?" Puck returned. He just decided to ignore the flip-flop in his stomach when she smiled at him like that. He forced himself to remember that she had a boyfriend. A very annoyed, glowering boyfriend that was staring at him like he had just defiled Rachel right there. He rolled his eyes and returned his attention to Will.

"So Santana has volunteered to go first."

Sam's eyes widened and turned a frantic gaze on Puck. Puck held up a hand and nodded. This wasn't part of the plan but it could work in their favor. Sam's song could actually work depending on what song Santana chose. He blinked as Rachel, Tina, Mercedes, Quinn and Brittany went to stand in the front of the room. Will took Rachel's vacated seat for which Puck was silently grateful. He could still feel Finn glaring in his direction. The lights in the room dimmed as the five girls stood behind the microphone that Will placed before he sat down.

_Lord, have mercy on my soul_

_For I have walked a sinful road_

_And I'm down on my knees_

_Lord, have mercy on me, please_

So Quinn did talk to her. Puck was vaguely familiar with this song. His sister went through a Christina Aguilera phase. And this was one of the only songs he found tolerable. Mostly because he kind of related to it. Santana was going to kill this. He watched as the girl took a step towards the microphone. Her gaze flickered towards Sam briefly before she started singing.

_Jesus, I must confess_

_That in all my loneliness_

_I've forsaken and I've sinned_

_Leaving fragments of a man so broken_

_I could tell you what I've done_

_Or should I tell you where I went wrong_

_Well the more that I start to play_

_My deceitful, evil ways_

_Keep on growing stronger by the day_

_Oh lord, have mercy on my soul_

_For I have walked a sinful road_

_So I'm gonna get down on my knees_

_Beg forgiveness to help set me free_

_Lord, have mercy on me, please_

_So don't let me fool around no more_

_Send your angels to guide me through that door_

_Well I've gone and confessed my regrets_

_And I pray that I'm not held in contempt_

_I'm so lost and I need you to help me repent_

_Oh lord, have mercy on my soul_

_For I have walked a sinful road_

_So I'm gonna get down on my knees_

_Beg forgiveness to help set me free_

_Lord, have mercy on me, please_

As the last note of the song played out, there was a heavy silence in the room. It was no secret that Santana was one of the better singers in the glee club but never had she actually bared her soul that way. And he knew that song was less to a god Santana didn't pray to and more to a boyfriend she thought she had lost for good. Puck stood up and pulled his friend into a hug. He was a hugger now, apparently. Damn Sam and his girly emotional growth powers. He must have said that out loud because he heard Santana laugh quietly.

"You did good, Satan."

"Thanks," she whispered. "For everything."

Puck raised an eyebrow and locked eyes with Quinn. The blonde gave him a small smile and nodded. So Quinn found her human side again after all. He wondered how much longer it would be around.

"Santana that was wow… that was amazing!" Will said, amazement written on his face.

She lifted her head off Puck's shoulder to smile wanly in his direction. Her gaze drifted towards Sam who was still sitting where the jazz band kids usually sat. She looked away immediately and let Puck drag her back to their seats.

"Ok, so I think Sam is next."

"Thanks, Mr. Schue," Sam mumbled, rising from his seat. He walked to the front. "I don't think my performance is going to be anywhere near as amazing as Santana's but I hope that it means something." He let out a shaky breath, glanced briefly and Puck and started playing.

_A thousand times I've seen you standing_

_Gravity like a lunar landing_

_You make me wanna run till I find you_

_I shut the world away from here_

_Drift to you, you're all I hear_

_As everything we know fades to black_

_Half the time the world is ending_

_Truth is I am done pretending_

Santana's breath caught in her throat and she let out a breathy little gasp as she finally caught on to what he was singing about. Puck smirked. He was so going to be the best man for this. Hell, if he wasn't so worried about the cross dressing factor, he might have called Maid of Honor too. But Rachel would probably kill him six times over if he thought about that. On second though, best man was good enough.

_I, never thought that I_

_Had anymore to give_

_You're pushing me so far_

_Here I am without you_

_Drink, to all that we have lost_

_Mistakes we have made_

_Everything will change_

_But, love remains the same_

_So much more to say_

_So much to be done_

_Don't you trick me now_

_We shall overcome_

_So all that's left is praying_

_But we, should have had the sun_

_We could have been inside_

_Instead we're over here_

_Half the time the world is ending_

_Truth is I am done pretending_

_Too much time too long defending_

_You and I are done pretending_

Sam hadn't finished playing before he had a former Cheerio in his arms. Puck watched his two best friends kissing and smiled. He was pretty good at this couples counseling stuff. Although it didn't look like either of them was letting go anytime soon and he really needed Sam to help him with his song. Puck frowned. Maybe he was too good.

"I so should've asked Artie."

* * *

><p>In the end, Sam did let go of Santana long enough to help Puck perform his song. But only after sitting through Mercedes singing <em>I'm Every Woman<em> while still holding onto his no longer ex-girlfriend. Puck didn't blame them though. He liked that they balanced each other. Sam was less shy when he was around Santana. Santana was less defensive when she was with Sam. She was less likely to strike out at the world. They were cute together and that's the only reason why he didn't smack Sam with the edge of his guitar when it was finally his turn to perform. But it was a near miss.

After his performance, Puck was subjected to a number of hugs from the other glee kids. He was really amazed by how much they had all dissolved into a bunch of hugging idiots. He was really starting to wonder if Sam had some kind of button that he just pushed that made them all in touch with their emotions. If so, he'd really like to consider using that on the football team. Now there were some people who could really use a damn hug.

He was packing up his guitar when he felt a hand on his shoulder. He looked up not surprised to see Quinn standing over him. "What's up, Q?"

"Can we talk?"

He glanced over at Sam who was waiting by the doorway with Santana. "You guys go ahead. I'll catch a ride from Quinn. Go be all gross and coupley. Also I want pizza tonight. I've earned it!"

Sam rolled his eyes. "Call me, if you need me."

Puck caught the hidden message in that and nodded. "No problem. Later, San, Sammy."

They said their goodbyes and walked out. Puck finished putting his guitar away and sat next to Quinn. "So what did you want to talk about?"

"You were right."

"Of course, you would wait until all witnesses were gone to say that," Puck teased, lightly, earning a reluctant smile. "What was I right about?"

"Everything," she replied, quietly. "I screwed everything up from the beginning. I thought I could make Finn see what he was missing by sleeping with you. Because you were always so nice to me. I wanted him to hurt and stop flirting with Rachel."

"But he didn't," Puck said, softly.

"No, he didn't. Seeing them together killed me. I thought I was in love with him. I thought that Finn was the one. And then I met Sam and maybe he was the one. But then Finn came back. I thought it was a sign." She shook her head. "But then he dumped me again for Rachel. And Sam doesn't want me back. I'm always going to be second to someone."

"Not always. One day, you're going to meet someone who sees the real you."

"Who is the real me, Puck? Do you even know?"

"The real you is the girl who used to tell my mom that the baby craved bacon just so you could give it to me," Puck grinned. "The girl that has a file on her computer with every Geico commercial ever made saved. The girl that claims to hate romantic comedies but forces people to watch them with her. That's the girl you really are, Quinn. Not this popularity seeking psycho Barbie."

Quinn nodded her head. "Why didn't I ever give us a chance?"

"We would never work out, Q. I see that now. But as much as I don't like you for everything with Beth, I still care about you for bringing her into this world. We're never going to be a couple but maybe we could be friends."

"I think about her," she admitted. "Every day. I think about what her first words would have been. Or what her laugh would have sounded like. Or what direction her first step would have been in. I think about what would have happened if I had just said yes to you instead of chasing after Finn and popularity."

"We did the right thing giving her away. We were too young to seriously try raising her. Not as screwed up as both were… still are. I get that now. But we don't have to keep being screwed up. We can change."

"I think you already have," Quinn pointed out with a smile. "You sound really grown up, Noah Puckerman."

"I guess therapy agrees with me," he shot back with a smile of his own.

"No, I think you're just letting the world see the real you, finally. The real you that used to sing songs that he wrote to his daughter every night."

Puck's eyes widened. "But you were sleeping!"

"It's amazing how many people are fooled by that lying there with your eyes closed thing. I used to fake it because I knew if let you know I was awake, you'd stop singing. Those were the moments I used to look forward to. You've got a gift, Puck. You're talented and you're bigger than this town."

"You think so?"

"I know so. You should be applying to school for music and not football," Quinn grinned. "I've heard the schools in New York are pretty nice."

"Is this your way of trying to break up Finn and Rachel again?"

"No, I'm over that." She caught his disbelieving look. "Seriously, I'm over that. Finn is not the man of my dreams. I don't know who is but it's definitely not him. But… I don't think he's the man of Rachel's dreams either. He's not the one for her."

"And you think I am?"

"No, I know you are. You and Rachel are so completely oblivious to how much you really love each other. It's the reason why Finn doesn't want you around her. You two reek of sexual tension. Finn's not scared that you'll sleep with Rachel. He's scared that one day she's going to wake up and realize she could do better than him."

"Now who sounds like the grown up?"

"I think it's being around you."

"Better than Sam and his magic vagina growing powers," Puck griped. Quinn raised an eyebrow but laughed. "I don't know what to think about the whole Rachel thing. You're wrong about one thing. I do know how much I'm in love with Rachel. But I'm not going to be the one that comes between her and Hudson. Not again. I'm done with that shit."

"You know that she's in love with you too, right?"

"I know. But I also know that I'm not making the first move. She's the one that went back to Hudson. So she needs to figure out what she wants. Hopefully she'll do that before I move on."

"She will," Quinn assured him. "Rachel may be an annoying, bossy, talented pain in my ass but she's not stupid. She'll figure it out. One day, she'll get it right."

"Did you just make a pun? Look at Quinn Fabray using her never before seen sense of humor."

"I guess I am a human being after all."

Puck played with the end of her ponytail. "Do you even like being a Cheerio?"

"God no," Quinn laughed. "Coach Sylvester is still insane. And the other girls are like junior mean girls but with flatter boobs and stupider comments. I don't even know why I thought coming back was a good idea."

"So quit," Puck shrugged. "Screw popularity. It's not going to help you when you really need it. But family will. And the gleeks are family."

Quinn smiled softly. "We are, aren't we?" she pursed her lips for a minute before pulling her hair out of her ponytail. "So what now?"

"Now? We go back to my house and break up Sam and Santana's make out session. Then we gorge ourselves on pizza and junk food. And then we start looking at music programs for me and photography programs for you."

"How did….."

"I know you, Q. I hear New York has some awesome photography programs. And probably really sensitive, emo guys that'll totally see through to your soul." Quinn laughed. "Oh, maybe we could find you a hot, rich doctor!"

"As long as me and my hot, rich doctor can be aunt and uncle to your and Rachel's adorable Jew babies."

"You've got a deal, Ms. Fabray."

No, they'd never be a couple. But he was pretty sure that they could be friends. That might just work.

* * *

><p>"So how is it that with two hot girls in the house, we still end up in bed together?" Puck mused as he and Sam lay side by side on his bed yet again. Sam snorted.<p>

"Because Dean is worried about you and Quinn's super fertility thing."

"Actually I think it might have had something to do with him catching you and Santana making out on the kitchen counter."

"Oh, yeah. There is that." Sam shifted a little so that he was facing Puck. "So what's really going on with you and Quinn?"

"Nothing. I think that Q is finally realizing that it's lonely at the top. And she doesn't want to be alone anymore. I know what that feels like."

"You know that you're not alone anymore, right?"

"I know, Sam. it's just that Quinn and I had a kid together. And sometimes I miss Beth so much. And it just helps having Quinn around. You don't mind us hanging out together, do you?"

"It's a little weird but if both you and San are alright with her, then I guess I am too. Besides, if she hadn't dumped me, I never would have started dating Santana."

Puck groaned. "You two are going to be one of those sickening couples that like devote entire Facebook status messages to each other, aren't you? You're so gross."

"And you're so happy we're back together."

"Shut up, Sam."

"Both of you shut up!" Santana's voice came from Sam's room. "If you two girls are finished talking, me and Q would like to get some sleep tonight. Damn it!"

The two boys exchanged looks and laughed. Puck reached up and hit the wall. "Love you too, Satan."

"What the hell ever, Puckerman. Goodnight."

"Night, San."

"Night, Sam."

"Goodnight, Quinn."

"Goodnight, Puck."

"Night, John Boy."

"Shut up, Dean!"

* * *

><p>*The end for now. I hope you all enjoyed.<p> 


	3. How Sammy Ruined Thanksgiving

"The Totally Not Dorky but Awesome and Badass Bromantic Tales of the Puckerone and Trouty Mouth"

**Summary:** Hindsight is a hateful evil bitch. Hindsight told Sam that every time Dean gave him that look, it always ended badly. He should've just grabbed Puck and ran for it. Instead he sat there and listened as his brother set off the chain of events that ended with Puck in the hospital because of a stupid cookie.

**Pairings:** Samtana, Finnchel, Bartie, Klaine, Chang-squared and Wemma. Hints of Puckleberry. Puck/Sam, Pezberry and Quick friendships

**Warnings:** No real spoilers involved in this story. It's obviously very AU as I totally made up Sam's family life. So nothing really spoilery in here. Be warned, this fic does deal with a very sensitive issue (child abuse and domestic violence). It's not too graphic but it is mentioned.

**Disclaimer:** I in no way shape or form own _Glee_ despite my continued efforts. I own Sam's brother Dean. And even that shtick is borrowed from Supernatural… which I also don't own. I also do not own The_ Golden Rule_ by The Lonely Island, Lady Gaga and Justin Timberlake. I wish I did but I don't. I just own it on my iPod.

**Author's Note: **Thank you to all my lovely reviewers! Your words mean a lot to me. Honestly, I enjoy the hell out of my reviews. They make me smile and give me this giddy little feeling. And as I was told that I no longer have a say in this, here is your new chapter! Trust me, I have no intentions of stopping this story any time soon. It's fun to write. And one of these days I will stop torturing Puck. I really will. Of course, that is probably the day that I lose interest in writing for _Glee_. Fortunately for you dear readers today is not that day. Also you may have noticed that this story is no longer listed as complete. It's because I didn't want to cause any confusion about a next chapter. This one ends with a little bit of a cliffhanger (you're being warned now, lol) so I lifted the complete for now. Hope you all enjoy this chapter as much as I enjoyed writing it.

* * *

><p><em>Hindsight is a hateful evil bitch. The very concept of it is just insulting. Who the hell cares about what you should've done after you've already done it? By the time hindsight rears its ugly useless head, you've probably screwed things up irrevocably. But at least you know for the next time you're in a totally fucked up situation. Oh, what's that? You don't really care about next time because you're dealing with the cluster-fuck that hindsight didn't help you prevent?<em>

_Sam really, really hated hindsight. Because hindsight was telling him that every time Dean gave him that look, it always ended badly. He should have grabbed Puck and ran for Mike's house. But instead he sat dopily next to his best friend while his brother set off the massive chain of screwed up events that led to Puck being in the hospital because of a cookie._

* * *

><p>Three Days Before…<p>

Sam glanced up from the paper in his hands to see an unusually anxious Puck staring back at him. He carefully placed the paper on the couch between them and sat up slowly from his previously sprawled position. Puck watched every move he made with unnatural attention until finally he snapped.

"Dude, seriously? What the hell? Do you like it or not? Oh God, you hate it, don't you? You think its shit. Oh god, I can't do this. I'm going to suck. What the hell was Schue thinking asking me to do this? We're going to lose because of me!"

Sam rolled his eyes before leaning forward to smack his best friend on the head. "Number one, I don't hate the song, moron. I really like it. Actually, it's safe to say I love it. It's really good. I think you should definitely go with this one. Number two, you're not going to suck. You're going to kick ass like you always do. If we lose, it's not going to be because of you."

Puck groaned and threw his head back against the sofa. Sam suppressed the urge to hit him again. Honestly, it wasn't entirely Puck's fault that he was freaking out. He was entitled to be a bit nervous but he was taking it to an extreme now and trying Sam's admittedly limited well of patience. Puck had been panicking since Will approached him the week before with the idea of writing and performing his own original song during Sectionals. Will was certain that there would be some representatives from music arts programs in attendance and it wouldn't hurt his application to have him perform his own song solo during the competition. He was keeping to his promise of being there for Puck and Sam knew it was greatly appreciated even if it wasn't visibly so at the moment.

"I've never sung alone in front of a crowd like that before. Especially not singing something I wrote," Puck finally said. "I mean performing in glee is one thing. But in front of all those people…."

Sam shrugged. "Just picture them in their underwear." He held up the paper with Puck's latest lyrics. "Although if you perform this song, I'm pretty sure that the ladies will be throwing their underwear at you. Possibly a few guys too."

Puck huffed and grabbed the paper out of his hands. "You really think it's a go?"

"Definitely. And you know I got your back. You could fit another guitar in the arrangement. You and San both have similar styles when it comes to singing. She'd be perfect to back you up. Artie can rock the bass and Blaine's got the keyboard down. Hell, we could even find a way to get Mike and Britt to interpretive dance to it if you thought that would help. You might be singing solo but you're not flying alone."

Puck let out a shaky laugh. "Thanks, dude. Sorry about all…that."

Sam chuckled. "It's allowed. What are bros for?"

"Aww, you two are just so adorable."

They both looked up to see Dean standing in the entrance to the living room. Dean and Sam were pretty much complete opposites when it came to personalities and looks. Whereas Sam was blond, polite and almost shy, Dean was brunette, abrasive and outgoing. In other words, whenever they went out most people assumed that Puck and Dean were brothers. That might have been part of the reason he and Puck got along so well.

"What do you want, Dean? Done torturing your clients for the day and decided to move on to us now?"

Dean's lips curled slightly into his familiar smirk before fading. Puck sat up straight. "Uh oh. That's not good."

"What? What's not good?"

"Dean's got that look."

"What look?"

"The look like he's about to tell us that there's no Santa."

"Santa's not real?" Sam's brow crinkled. "But then who gave Artie the re-walk thing?"

Puck blinked. "Part of me really hopes you're kidding. But most of me knows you're not. So anyway, Dean, what did you want?"

"Ok, here's the thing," Dean sat on the coffee table opposite the two boys. "So you know Thanksgiving is coming up, right?"

"Yeah, we kind of noticed as school is closed that day. And all the turkeys in Lima seem to have disappeared."

"Funny, smart ass, the thing is my boss is offering me some extra money as an incentive to go to a conference…. Starting tomorrow and ending Friday."

"They're having a conference on Thanksgiving? What kind of non American crap is that?" Puck protested.

"Apparently it's run by Native Americans. They frown upon Thanksgiving you know because it was the beginning of the end for them. Whatever, not the point, the point is that I said yes because we could always use the extra money around here."

"I told you I could get a job or pay more rent," Puck paused. "Or you know actual rent. Since you keep decreasing the rent based off of whatever pops into your head at the moment."

Dean grinned. "And I'll keep doing it too. I told you the only things I want you focused on is school, football and glee," Dean assured him, patting him on the knee. "We're not strapped for cash but you two are prepping for college. I can't send you guys to New York or wherever you end up looking like bums. I'm thinking about me here. You two look like losers and everyone will think I am too. But I do this conference, get bored to tears, miss one little holiday and we get some extra cash. Everyone wins."

"So what are we supposed to do for Thanksgiving?" Sam finally spoke up. It wasn't that he was all about Thanksgiving but holidays were supposed to be important. They were supposed to be times that you spent with your family. And sadly the two people in the room with him were the only things he had left to call family. The thought alone was enough to make him want to curl up and bawl like a baby.

"Sammy," Dean started, taking in the look in Sam's eyes. "I'll be back on Friday. We'll have our own Thanksgiving with movies and more junk food than I've ever allowed either of you to eat before."

"That sounds nice but what about the actual day of Thanksgiving. I mean are we supposed to sit here and stare at each other?"

"No, that'd be weird but strangely less gay than the stuff you two normally do." Dean was not surprised when two couch pillows hit him in the face. "I actually got that covered. I called Mr. Berry, that's Leroy in case you two were wondering. He said that he would love to have you guys over."

"Rachel's dad?"

"Yeah. He said that you guys could come over and join them for a quiet, Thanksgiving dinner." Dean leaned forward. "I know it's not ideal. And I know that this is the first Thanksgiving we've spent apart, Sam, and the first one that Puck has been part of the family but it's going to be ok. I'll be back on Friday. And I promise I'm not bailing on Hanukah or Christmas. You know the good holidays."

Sam sighed and rolled his head towards Puck. His friend shrugged. "It might not completely suck. Rachel's dads are amazing cooks. If you think Rachel's cookies are good wait until you have Leroy's sweet potato pie. It's awesome."

"Alright," Sam agreed reluctantly. "I guess it won't be so bad."

* * *

><p>The next morning found Sam beginning to rethink that statement. Dean dropped Sam off at school before he headed off to his conference. Puck drove Sam's car in order to give the brothers a little time to themselves. When they met up at the parking lot, Sam was grateful that Puck didn't mention the suspiciously red eyes. He simply patted Sam on the back and steered them towards the school building.<p>

He was midway to his locker when he felt a pair of arms wind around his waist. He smiled brightly before turning to face his girlfriend. "Hey," he greeted, leaning in for a kiss.

"Hey yourself," she grinned in return. "So a little bird tells me you're joining us for Turkey Day."

"Us? You're going to Rachel's house too?"

"My family isn't really into the whole holidays and family togetherness stuff so Rach asked me to come over. Her dad makes amazing pies. You know how much I love pie."

Puck snorted and slapped a hand over his mouth to badly conceal the laughs that were trying to come through. Santana grinned at the look of annoyance on Sam's face. "Is it too soon to joke about that considering you thought I was dumping you so I could be full time Lebanese like a week ago?"

"Really, San?"

"It's ok, baby. You're all the lady I need with those lips." Puck gave up the pretense of trying to hide his laughter at this point. Seriously, if he didn't love these two as much as he did, Sam really would've just walked away. Instead, he rolled his eyes and tried to hide his own smile.

"You two are ridiculously similar and annoying. But to back to your original point, you're going to be at Rachel's house too."

"That's right. I mean after all, it is our first Thanksgiving together."

"So it is." He suddenly felt a lot better about this. No, Dean wouldn't be there but he had Puck and now Santana. That almost made up for his missing brother. He leaned his forehead against hers. This week was sucking a lot less now.

And then a bright flash went off in his face. As he blinked away the colored spots in his eyes, he glared in what he hoped was Quinn's general direction. His ex-girlfriend giggled before snapping another picture. Ever since her talk with Puck, Quinn was rarely seen without a camera. She was also rarely seen without a smile on her face. She really enjoyed photography and she was good at it. She joined the photography club even though they weren't exactly at the height of popularity. And she didn't seem to care because it made her happy. For the first time since he'd known her, Quinn Fabray was actually happy. It almost made him not want to break the damn camera. Almost. But not quite.

"Morning, Q," Puck said, slinging an arm around her shoulders. She dutifully held up the camera showing off her latest shot like the evil minion of Puckerman that she had become. "Now that's a keeper. That one is totally going on the mantle at home."

"We don't have a mantle."

"Then we make Dean buy a mantle with his Turkey Day blood money so that this one can go on it!"

Santana nudged Sam in the stomach before he could open his mouth to retort. "Hey, Quinn, you should show Puck the picture you took yesterday. That one is a keeper too."

Sam raised an eyebrow at the almost evil look that crossed both girls' faces. Quinn pulled away from Puck and scrolled through her pictures. Finally, she landed on the picture and showed it to Puck. His face flushed. Sam was by Quinn's side in a flash. It was a black and white shot of Puck strumming his guitar while Rachel was singing. It was one of those candid shots that Quinn was so gung-ho about capturing. It didn't take a genius to see why Puck was so embarrassed.

"Could you be eye-sexing Berry anymore?" Santana asked, innocently. "I think I'm going to choke on the UST in this picture."

"Now this one is definitely going on our imaginary mantle," Sam countered, looking at his still violently blushing best friend.

"Screw that, this one is going on the wedding invitations," Quinn chimed in.

"Who's wedding invitations?" Rachel asked, suddenly appearing behind the gathered crew. They all turned to see her with Finn, per the usual. Sam didn't think it was possible for a human being to turn the shades of red that Puck was turning at the moment. Serves the jerk right. "Is someone getting married?"

"Uh, they were just… uh," Santana fumbled.

"We were just teasing Samtana over here about their latest cute couple moment," Quinn covered smoothly. She even showed Rachel the picture she took of him and Santana. His ex was good. Maybe that's why he actually believed her stupid story of how she got mono.

"Aw, that's such a cute picture," Rachel squealed. "But please refrain from all the cute and not so cute moments on Thursday. We don't need you two fornicating all over my house."

"Who actually uses the word 'fornicating' in a sentence these days," Santana grumbled. "Really Berry, lose the grown ass words already. You're not a dictionary. And I promise that we will not get our freak on all over your house… before dinner. What happens after that is between me and Sammy."

"And the freakishly thin walls in Berry's house," Puck muttered. "You sure this is a good idea, Rach?"

"No, but Dad and Daddy are really looking forward to this now," she sighed dramatically. "So I suppose I'll just have to live with it. So Sam, do you have any special dietary concerns or allergies?"

"Wait, Sam and Puck are going to your house for Thanksgiving?" Finn interrupted. Puck scoffed and stepped away from his former best friend. Quinn put a hand on his arm in a show of support. "You two are back together?"

Quinn rolled her eyes. "What do you care? You're with Man…. Rachel. You're with Rachel now. So you don't have any reason to be concerned if I am or am not with Puck."

"Drop it, Hudson," Puck warned, eyes darting between Finn and Rachel pointedly.

"Whatever," Finn rolled his eyes. He looked down at Rachel. "You didn't tell me that Sam and Puck were going to be at your house for Thanksgiving."

"I wasn't aware that I needed to tell you that," Rachel replied, testily. "Sam's brother asked Daddy and Daddy jumped at the chance. In case you forgot, Noah is a friend of theirs as well. It was their decision and their call and I support it. So Sam, do you have any dietary concerns or allergies?"

Sam wanted to laugh at the dumbstruck look on Finn's face but he forced himself to focus on Rachel's question. "Um, no. Like what?"

"Like Noah's allergies to shellfish and nuts."

Sam glared at the suddenly sheepish Puck. "Noah's what?"

Rachel narrowed her eyes and her hands flew up to her hips. "Sam doesn't know?"

Puck put a hand to his ear. "Oh, what's that? The bell? Oh, San, we're late for first period!" Santana let out a squeak as he grabbed her arm and ran like a bat out of hell away from the tense scene. Sam was going to kill him later. How the hell could he not tell him that? How the hell could he live with the guy and not know that he had food allergies?

"Don't feel bad, Sam. He's embarrassed about being allergic to things so he tends to not tell anyone. We only know because we've been in school with him longer. Otherwise we'd be clueless too," Quinn assured him. "It's like he thinks it's the opposite of badass to be taken out by a shrimp."

"He could die?"

"Just from shellfish. He's just gets blotchy when it comes to nuts," Rachel answered. "But with the way he acts, you'd think the blotchiness was the worst."

"Remember that time in fifth grade when he ate a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup because he didn't know that they had peanuts in them," Quinn giggled. "He was red for days afterwards. And he whined like he was dying."

"He was insufferable," Rachel acknowledged with a small smile in Quinn's direction. Sam knew they were trying to make him feel better about not knowing about Puck's allergies but he just felt so… stupid. How could he not notice that? He was set to sink deeper into what Santana called his 'boring broody mode' when the actual bell for first period rang. Quinn and Rachel excused themselves and walked off together.

Sam was vaguely aware of Finn saying something. But he couldn't hear it over his own circuitous thoughts. What if Dean made dinner one night and it had shellfish in it? They would've killed the idiot and never even known why! Sam headed towards his class (that he in fact shared with Puck and Santana) and ignored Finn. Hindsight later showed that was a mistake.

* * *

><p>"I cannot believe you're still not talking to me over some stupid allergies!" Puck whined, trailing after Sam like a…. whining best friend. He was really going to have to find a better way to describe that one. Right after he got over being pissed at the idiot for never telling him about his stupid allergies.<p>

Sam opened his locker and started pulling out his books for the day. He was aware of Puck's continued whining but he had no intention of letting him off the hook that easily. He managed to avoid talking to him for a whole 24 hours though it was a struggle. He found it easier if he didn't actually make direct eye contact with his friend. Puck had the sad puppy dog eyes down to an art form. He actually feared the day Puck and Rachel finally got their shit together and started having kids. Tiny, adorable unholy combinations of all the charm and manipulation that Puck and Rachel possessed. Sam's wallet would be a goner.

"Come on, Sammy! I'm really sorry. It's just not a big deal to me. I'm really careful about avoiding those types of foods. And I travel with those stupid epi-pens. Rachel totally gave me like a case of them when I first found out. And her crazy ass makes sure they're like up to date every three months. But I'm sorry I never told you! And I've just apologized to you like a thousand times and you know what that does to me!"

The corners of Sam's lips curled up, though he tried to fight it. He glanced out the corner of his eye at his friend. He snorted at the sight of Puck trying not to obviously scratch at a spot on his arm. "You're an idiot, you know that, right?"

"Well, yeah," Puck smiled slightly. "But that's never bothered you before."

"Dumb ass," Sam rolled his eyes before poking Puck on chest. "I know you think it makes you less badass but you have to tell me these things. I get that you're careful at avoiding those types of foods but if we don't know, then we can't be careful too. I need you to tell me these things. Ok?"

"Ok," Puck agreed. He looked at Sam hesitantly. "So we're cool?"

"Yeah, dude. We're cool," Sam replied as he closed his locker door.

"You two are so repressing your gay love for one another," Kurt said, dryly. Sam jumped at his sudden appearance. "It's really sad actually. You should just admit that you love one another and be free."

"It's only mildly funny when Blaine says it, Porcelain," Puck glared in his direction. "What do you want anyway?"

"What I want and why I'm over here are two entirely different issues." Sam felt Puck tense. He tapped his friend on the shoulder before plucking Kurt hard on the arm. The soprano rubbed his arm in outrage. "What was that for?"

"For irking him. So what brings you over here?"

"Thanksgiving," Kurt replied, still rubbing his arm. "It seems that your presence at the Berry family Thanksgiving extravaganza has caused some issues for my dear stepbrother."

"So Finn's got his panties in a twist. What else is new?"

"That he actually somehow convinced his mother that we should have one big joint family Thanksgiving. He told Carole that we should have Thanksgiving with the Berry family since he and Rachel have been 'going strong for the past five months' and Carole, bless her soul, actually bought that steaming pile of crap."

"Great, so we're officially out for Thanksgiving?"

"No, actually the Papas Berry put their foot down and insisted that you two and Santana continue to be included as was their original plan. Carole, of course agreed because she has no idea that this is all Finn's jealous plot to keep the inevitable Puckleberry from happening. Finn had no choice but to agree to those terms even though he's less than pleased about it."

Sam threw a look at Puck. "So much for nice, quiet Thanksgiving. We're surrounded by hostiles."

"If it's any consolation, Blaine will also be there. And apparently Quinn too."

"Q?"

"Yes, it seems that she and Rachel are playing nice with one another. Quinn is a lot mellower since you've discovered your softer side. And Rachel seems to be under the belief that you and Quinn are dating again so she invited her. She figured that you'd need all the support you can get." Kurt rested a hand on Puck's shoulder in his typical dramatic way. "For the record, Klaine supports you."

Puck rolled his eyes and brushed the hand off his shoulder. "I'm going to class now. It's Home-EC and they're talking about baking a cake. Hopefully, I can control the urge to vomit long enough to try eating whatever Brittany makes. That should infect me with some sort of disease to get me out of this shit."

Sam stared at his best friend in disbelief. "And you weren't planning on sharing that with me?"

* * *

><p>Thanksgiving Day<p>

"The one time we needed Brittany to make something inedible she goes and creates like the best thing ever," Sam muttered, leaning further against the sofa he and Puck claimed.

"Who else but Brittany would even think that Pepsi and strawberries would mix well lime?" Puck grinned. The grin quickly fell off his mouth as Finn directed a glare in his direction for the tenth time that hour alone. "I'd say his face might get stuck in that position but it'd probably be an improvement over the usual dopey look."

Sam chuckled. "So when did you just decide to jump on the 'Hate Finn' bandwagon? You've been defending him since we started hanging together. When did the hate set in?"

"Pretty much around the time I moved in," Puck shrugged. "And I guess I don't hate him per say. I just hate a lot of the things that he does and I hate that no one seems to notice when he's being an asshole. I've been called an asshole since pretty much birth but Finn gets whatever he wants, whenever he wants no matter what he does. After awhile I guess I just got sick of it."

"About damn time," Santana agreed, dropping down onto Sam's lap. She swung her legs up so that they were lying across Puck. "I was seriously starting to think you might have caught stupid from hanging around Hudson so long. I always wondered when you'd wake up and smell the douche."

"You could've just told me."

"But where would the fun be in that, Pucky," she smirked, tapping him on the nose.

"Santana, what have I told you about using the boys as furniture today?"

Santana tilted her head back so that she could better seen Leroy Berry. "Make sure that I take my shoes off first because they're actually decently dressed for once and we don't want to ruin that?" she held up her shoeless feet.

"Good girl," Leroy praised. Puck pushed Santana's legs off and stood up to receive the inevitable hug from Rachel's father. The Berry's were all about hugging. Sam learned that the day he, Puck and Dean went to retrieve the rest of Puck's stuff from his former home. The Papas Berry were so very grateful to the Evans brothers for taking Puck in when he needed help the most. They told them this repeatedly through hugs and fatherly pats on the back. They continued to tell them this through random dropped off dishes and supportive phone calls. Needless to say, Dean and Sam completely loved both Leroy and Hiram.

"Noah, you look good, kiddo. You look happy," Leroy clapped his friend on the shoulder. "So Rachel tells me that you're performing solo at Sectionals this year."

Puck smiled sheepishly and sent a quick glare in Rachel's direction. The brunette winked in his direction before resuming her conversation with Quinn. Puck sighed. "Yeah, I am. Mr. Schue thought it might help my applications for school."

"I always knew that man had a brain underneath the scary amount of hair product he abuses. I'm glad he finally realized the talent he was wasting with you. 'Bout damn time he got it together." Sam had to laugh at the look of embarrassment mixed with pride on Puck's face. "So did you choose a song already?"

"Yeah, this weekend Sam helped me pick out the one that I'm going to play," Puck replied. "It's ok."

"Ok?" Santana scoffed. "The song is hot. I've heard you sing it. It's hot. It is safe to say that the song will dramatically increase in quality with me involved.

"Bite me, Satan."

"No, thank you. I'm in a committed relationship now," Santana retorted. She batted her eyes at Sam. "Unless you're down for that kind of thing. You know the Golden Rule."

"San, it's gay even in a three way," Sam chuckled.

"And Hiram wonders why we didn't have more children," Leroy shook his head, smiling. He slung an arm around Puck's shoulders. "Come talk with me and Hiram for a bit. Rachel's been driving us crazy in the kitchen and we could use an extra non judgmental hand."

"No problem, Leroy. Be back, Sammy."

Sam nodded in his direction before letting Santana snuggle further into his embrace. This wasn't so horrible. If he just ignored Quinn's never-ending camera flashes and Finn's hostile glares, it was actually pretty enjoyable.

"I think we might want to watch the food," Santana whispered in his ear.

"You think Finn's going to try and poison it or something?"

She scoffed. "As if that moron would be smart enough to figure out how to poison the food. No, I think we might want to watch what Rachel puts in Quinn's food."

Sam raised an eyebrow and peered around his girlfriend towards their hostess who was looking through pictures with Quinn. "But I thought they were getting along."

"Yeah, that's what everyone thinks. But Berry's no idiot. She sees Puck and Q getting along and she's trying to get to the bottom of it. So she's playing nice with Quinn until she figures it out. Hopefully she gets that they're not together before Quinn winds up with the vegan friendly equivalent of a boiling bunny."

"I will never understand the dynamics of this club."

"It's simple. We're all hot, horny teenagers who want to rip each other's clothes off," Santana shrugged. "Seriously, I'm shocked the mono only affected Finn and Quinn with the way that everyone in this club hooks up with everyone else."

"We are an incestuous family," Sam agreed. "But I don't plan on hooking up with anyone else. How about you?"

Santana rolled her eyes. "You're such a girl, Sam. Might be why I like you so much." He cleared his throat. "Fine, I don't plan on hooking up with anyone else either."

"Why do you always do that? Make a joke out of everything?"

She toyed with the collar of his shirt hesitantly before looking up at him. "I'm not really good with relationships. I haven't got the best track record with them. So if it seems like I'm not taking this seriously, I don't mean it."

"I get it. I do. Remember, I live with Puck. He's like the poster child for emotional damage. But if he can learn how to express himself other than by hitting things and people, you can too. Besides I'm not the best with relationships either. So we learn together."

She nodded, smiling somewhat. "Puck's right, you know? Being around you does make you grow a vagina."

Sam snorted. "You're a girl. Isn't that kind of a good thing?'

"Kinda. But I like my edge. Its bad enough Berry's got me on the straight and narrow at school. Now you're getting me to talk about feelings. Soon I'm going to be sitting around, wearing pink and planning my pretty princess wedding," Santana sat up straight. "That's my future. I have to stop this. I have to reclaim my edge."

Sam blinked at the sudden change in the conversation. He should've known better really. Things had been calm for an hour. That was about 55 minutes longer than normal with the teens gathered under this roof. So really he wasn't as surprised as he should've been.

"And how are you planning on doing that? We're at Rachel's house on Thanksgiving. It doesn't get less edgy than that."

"I have an idea," she leaned forward to peck on him on the lips. "See you later, Trouty Mouth."

"Later, Satan." He watched her go with an amused smile on his lips. Yes, his girlfriend was all sorts of insane but she was hot and more than worth the trouble she attracted. A few minutes later he was rethinking that theory as the increasingly more shrill voice of Kurt could be heard over the sounds of the television which was also rising in volume to counter Kurt.

Puck wandered back into the den and took his seat beside Sam. "You know your girlfriend just hijacked the big screen TV right?"

Sam sighed. "I figured as much. Football?"

"Yeah. Kurt was watching the parade or something equally fluffy. So Santana turned to the game."

"She hates football."

"She's crazy," Puck countered. "And she enjoys making people cry. She can sit through a football game if she has the added bonus of making someone cry in the process. It's the whole reason she became a Cheerio. She hates the game and she hates cheer-leading but the uniform gave her a license to make people cry."

"The fact that you don't see a problem with that is actually more disturbing than what she's doing."

Puck shrugged. "What can I say? I've known the girl since she was eight. Shit starts to get normal when you've been around it that long."

Sam shook his head. He highly doubted that he'd ever find anything these people did normal. No matter how long he spent around them. Then again, he did kind of understand where Puck was coming from. After all, he was related to Dean.

"So you going to stop her?"

"Nah," Sam replied, lazily. "She wants to reclaim her edge. Apparently my 'vagina growing powers' have affected her too. So if she wants to get that edge back by torturing Kurt…. Well there are worse ways."

"True," Puck agreed. He leaned into Sam's shoulder and grinned. "Want to go and laugh?"

"Sure." Sam paused, glancing across the room at Finn who was making his way into the now empty kitchen. Apparently the epic showdown between Kurt and Santana was enough to draw even Leroy and Hiram. He could hear them loudly taking bets on whether Santana or Kurt would resort to hair pulling first. Did Sam mention that he really loved those guys? But now that left Finn in a kitchen. Alone. "You go ahead. I'll catch up in a minute."

Puck frowned staring at him for several long moments. Finally, he shrugged and rose from the sofa. "See you in a minute then. And don't hit Hudson in the face or Rachel will find every opportunity to tell the tale of 'How Sammy Ruined Thanksgiving' for the rest of your life."

Sam didn't bother to question how Puck knew what he was going to do. He just accepted that he and Puck were strangely connected and left it at that. He just nodded and made his way into the kitchen. While Santana doubted that Finn was smart enough to the poison the food, Sam knew that even the dimmest bulbs had a bright moment, no matter how fleeting it was. Sam would be damned if Finn was going to have a bright moment now and do something really stupid.

"What are you doing?"

Finn looked up from the plate of cookies he had been fussing over. He flushed at being caught which quickly morphed in a familiar look of annoyance when he saw who it was.

"Grabbing one of my mom's cookies," he retorted. "Is that ok with you? I wasn't aware I needed your permission."

Sam narrowed his eyes. His Puck sense was on alert. It was the nagging feeling in his gut that bothered him so damn frequently he had to name it. It was the same feeling he got when something wasn't quite right about or around Puck. He learned to trust those feelings as they usually led to him counteracting some recklessly stupid plan on Puck's behalf (i.e. the time he actually tried to move back with his parents because he thought he was a financial drain on the Evans' brothers.) Right now, he felt that something wasn't right and it had everything to do with Finn and the cookies. So trusting that instinct, he took a bite out of one of them.

It was delicious but… "Really? Are there almonds in here?"

Finn's eyes widened a bit. "No?"

"So that was your plan? You were going to kill Puck on Thanksgiving?"

"No! Wait, wasn't it the other one that kills him? I thought they would just make him red and stuff."

Sam blinked and sincerely hoped that Finn never seriously pursued a life of crime because he was really terrible at this whole not confessing to your planned criminal activities thing.

"The fact that you're confused about which one is fatal should be your answer as to whether you should go through with this plan. Because seriously? What the hell is wrong with you? He was your best friend!"

"Yeah, I was his best friend and now you are. All of a sudden he doesn't give a crap about me. He's too busy following you around to notice me."

"It's probably because you say stuff like that and don't see how that's wrong," Sam countered. "Friendship isn't about how much you can take from a person or how much attention they give to you. You have to give something too. You never gave with Puck. And it doesn't exactly take a genius to see that he needs a lot."

"That's just it. I've known him pretty much all our lives that count. Yet I don't know half the stuff you found out in a night! He should've come to me but he chose you. And I don't get it."

"I didn't do anything special, Finn. I just… saw him. I saw that he was hurting and I asked him about it. That's it. I never intended to come between you and Puck. I never wanted him to stop being your friend, much less your best friend. I never meant for any of that to happen. But I'm not sorry that it did."

Finn sighed and sat down at that kitchen table. "I don't even know what the hell I was thinking."

"You weren't," Sam shrugged. "I think it's the water in the school. It leads to horrible impulse control and judgment."

"You're not going to kick my ass?"

"Nah. Not today. Apparently Rachel will slander my good name if I hit you in the face and ruin Thanksgiving. So I'm doing this for her, not for you. I still think you're a hypocritical asshole and I hate pretty much everything about you."

Finn blinked in shock. Sam shrugged again.

"It's true. I'm sorry but it is. I hate you for helping Quinn to cheat on me even when you know how much that shit hurts. I hate that you lied about sleeping with Santana like she was something to be ashamed of. I hate that you continuously make Puck feel like shit for sleeping with Quinn when you clearly forgave her completely. I hate that you're pretty much the reason why Puck never told anyone that his father was back and beating the hell out of him since July."

"How…."

Sam didn't give him a chance to finish the question. Now that he had the opportunity to get this off his chest, he didn't want to stop. There were so many issues he had with Finn but it was the ongoing damage that Finn caused for their mutual Mohawk sporting friend that really incensed Sam. One day he'd settle his own hurt feelings for the whole Quinn thing. But he'd save that for a non holiday, thank you.

"You made him afraid to talk to Rachel. Before I came along, he had Rachel. In case you're like blind, Leroy and Hiram think of him like a son. They really care about him. Rachel really cares about him. But you made him stay away from Rachel. You cut him off from the people that really cared about him. All because you're jealous and selfish."

"I never meant…."

"Of course you didn't," Sam rolled his eyes. "I might hate you and think you're a selfish prick but you're not a sadistic bastard. Just like I know you never meant to try to kill him. You do stuff and you just don't think about the consequences. And that might have been ok when you were younger but newsflash: we're almost eighteen. We're graduating. The consequences are starting to matter. What you do to the people around you matters."

Sam ran a hand through his hair. "For some odd reason, Puck actually still wants to be your friend. He might not say it but I can tell. I'm not going to stand in his way. But just know that if you hurt him anymore there is not a holiday in this world that will protect you. Do you understand?"

"Yeah, man, I get it." Finn paused, taking a shaky breath. "I get why you and Puck get along now."

"Really?"

"It's because you're the same. When Puck really cares about something or someone, he gets really intense about it. It's the way he is about Rachel. He told me that he'd step back but that I couldn't hurt Rachel again. And I promised I wouldn't. At least I've been doing that right."

"And yet you're forcing her away from her oldest friend. How is that not hurting her?"

Finn looked down at his hands. "He loves her."

Sam sighed and sat down opposite from the brunette. "Yeah. Yeah, he does."

"She loves him too."

Sam raised an eyebrow. Seriously did everyone in this damn glee club know this? "So you see it too."

"She'll never look at me like she looks at him. She acts like everything I do is so amazing but I feel like she's acting all the time. But when she's around Puck, she's different. She's real. And I just get so… angry. Because it's not fair. Puck isn't supposed to get the girl. He's not supposed to be the one that everyone focuses on."

"Because it's supposed to be you? That's not incredibly selfish."

"I never said I was perfect."

"Yeah, but you never said you were a douche either, so clearly your judgment regarding your character is not to be completely trusted." Sam placed his hands together on the table between them. "Look it comes down to this. I don't think a magical talk in the kitchen is going to suddenly fix you. I'm pretty much certain you'll do something hateful before the week is over. It's how you roll. But you can change. You can stop with the petty, little boy crap and grow up. You're not the center of attention anymore. It's not a big deal."

Finn's jaw tensed but he didn't say anything. Not that Sam expected him to. He was shocked they'd talked this much. While he wanted to say he had a better understanding of Finn and his motivations, he didn't really. Finn was petty and selfish. He was probably always going to be petty and selfish to some degree. It's what happened when you never had to work at anything in life. Sam couldn't wait for Finn to hit the college years. That was going to be fun. He might just keep in touch with the guy after graduation just for the fun of it.

"Uh, Sam?"

"Yeah?"

"Where are the cookies?"

Sam whirled around to the counter behind them where the plate of cookies formerly rested. The spot was empty. Sam vaguely remembered someone entering the kitchen while they were talking but he didn't register them taking the cookies away. "I don't know but I'm sure it's nothing to worry about."

"Oh, Noah, there you are. You have to try one of my cookies. It's a new recipe."

Sam and Finn exchanged wide eyed glances. "Oh crap!"

* * *

><p>"And that, kids, is the true story of how Sammy and Finn ruined Thanksgiving," Santana finished, complete with a curtsey to a round of applause. Sam was not amused.<p>

"I liked it," Puck grinned from his place in bed. His hand strayed towards the bandage on his head but it was quickly smacked away by Rachel. He threw her an annoyed look. "Seriously how much longer do I have to stay here? This is such bullshit."

"You have a concussion, Noah," Rachel hissed, still glaring in Sam's direction. "That's serious. And in case you forgot, which is a symptom of the concussion, there is a hole in your scalp!"

"It doesn't even hurt! And it totally stopped bleeding like two hours ago," Puck whined. "I just want to go home."

"Pouting and whining," Santana murmured. "Not sure if those are signs of the concussion or Puck's usual regression when he's not getting his way."

Sam knew better than to laugh. He was already in trouble with the two women in the room. The last thing he needed was to add the fact that he laughed inappropriately to his list of crimes against Puck.

"I leave you guys alone for two days and you're already turning on each other. Really, Sammy, I know Puck can get annoying but resorting to fratricide already?"

Sam cursed under his breath at the sound of the one voice he was praying he wouldn't have to hear until at least tomorrow. He looked up from his hands to see his older brother leaning in the doorway.

"For the record, I'm pretty sure the fratricide was not intentional," Puck replied. He frowned. "At least I don't think it was."

"It probably wasn't but I just really need to understand how the hell you ended up with a concussion on Thanksgiving?" Dean asked, shaking his head. He walked into the room and stood next to his still silent brother.

"Turns out Mrs. Hummel made these really delicious cookies with almonds that Finn was apparently thinking of giving to Noah," Rachel reported. "Sam figured out what he was going to do and went to stop him. But they started talking and got distracted. Mrs. Hummel came and retrieved the cookies during this time. She offered one to Noah and Sam decided that the best way to stop him from eating one of the cookies was to tackle him into the dining room table."

Dean bit his lip in an obviously vain gesture to keep from laughing. "Really, Sammy? Into the table?"

"I didn't mean for him to hit the table," Sam moaned, burying his face in his hands. "I was just trying to stop him from eating the cookie."

"I'd like to point out that I asked what was in the cookies first. Of course, I didn't hear the answer because that's when someone knocked me into the table," Puck added. "But the point is, I asked before taking the cookie. I told you I was careful, Sam."

Sam lifted his head to meet his best friend's steady gaze. Unlike the two girls in the room, Sam found no blame there. Only amusement. Then again, Puck got Sam. He knew that this was nothing more than a stupid, horrible accident. The blonde gave a weak smile in response.

"I know. I'm sorry. I kind of overreacted."

"Tell me that Quinn got pictures of this," Dean pleaded, ignoring their moment.

"Even better, Blaine recorded it on his phone," Santana replied with a grin. "He apparently was waiting for Kurt to launch an attack to get the remote back when he saw Sam charging out of the kitchen. So he got it all on film."

"Quinn did take pictures of Sam's rather excessive meltdown when he realized that Noah was bleeding," Rachel added, her eyes softening as she started to see the humor in the situation.

"That was probably the best part of that whole thing," Puck agreed like the traitorous bastard he was. But then again, Sam wasn't really going to fault him because he did knock him into a table. He was entitled to be a little bit bitchy towards him. "My favorite part was when he started freaking out because of the blood."

"No, the best part was when he yelled at Finn who passed out from the sight of the blood," Santana countered. "Then fell on his knees and started begging you to wake up when you were clearly conscious."

Sam groaned. "Ok, so it's pretty safe to say I'm never going to live this down, huh?"

"Pretty much," was the well timed and chorused response from Puck, Santana and Rachel. Mr. Schuster would be so proud.

"Perfect."

Puck laughed at his pain before turning towards Dean with the puppy dog eyes in place. "Dean, can you please get me out of here? I don't want to stay overnight."

"Turn those things off! You know I have like no resistance to that. Besides, it's pointless. You're not staying here overnight," Dean said. "I just signed all the paperwork agreeing that I'm responsible for watching you for the night because I'm a responsible adult."

Sam and Puck glanced at one another. "Since when?"

"Oh, you're both so funny! Let us remember who the responsible one is here. I was out working and making money to support us. You two were sniffing death cookies and getting concussions. So who gets to cast aspersions on whom regarding responsibility?"

"Who taught you the word aspersions?"

Dean rolled his eyes. "Because the world didn't hate me enough, it gave me two annoying ass little brothers!" he threw a bag at Puck. "Get dressed. We're going back to the Berry's. Hiram and Carole saved dinner for everyone."

"Wait, why _are_ you back? You didn't come back because of this, did you?"

Dean squeezed his brother's shoulder gently. "No, squirt, I didn't come back because you tried to kill Thanksgiving. I had a change of heart about being away from you two on Thanksgiving. I was already on my way to the house when I got the message from Leroy that he was riding with you all to the hospital. So I just grabbed a change of clothes for Puck and headed over here. Too bad I didn't get home sooner. We could have saved Hiram the horror of getting blood out of the tablecloth."

Sam groaned. Hiram and Leroy were going to kill him.

* * *

><p>When they arrived back at the Berry household, they found that everyone was still there. The previously merry guests were waiting somberly in the den. Sam frowned picking up on the tension right away.<p>

"What's going on?" Leroy asked, walking further into the den. All eyes flickered towards Puck who was standing behind Sam and Dean.

"Noah," Hiram started, stepping towards the small group. "There's someone here to see you. I know that you don't want to see her but she has something important to tell you. I thought it might be best if you heard it from her. Besides she insisted."

Puck looked to Sam, who shrugged. He had no idea who it was either but he had his best friend's back. Hiram informed the mystery guest they could come into the den and Sam understood the cause for the tension right away.

"Mom?" Puck asked, roughly. Mrs. Puckerman stared at her son with nothing close to love and compassion. Sam tensed and moved closer to Puck. He noticed that he wasn't the only one. Mrs. Puckerman would be lucky if she could even seen Puck through the solid wall of muscle that was Dean Evans. Puck looked happy for the distraction as he struggled to understand why she was there. "What's… why… are you here?"

"It's your father, Noah."

"What… about him?" Puck looked around as if he expected the man to spring out of one of the sofa cushions and start hitting him. Sam didn't like that look on his friend's face. But he concluded he liked the look that crossed Puck's face at his mother's next words even less.

"He's dead."

* * *

><p>*I told you I took the complete label off for a reason. And yes, I went there. Overly dramatic, I know. But I have my reasons. I hope you all liked the conversation between Sam and Finn. That was actually my favorite part to write. Anyway, hope you enjoyed. The next chapter should be available soon (hopefully). Ciao for now.<p> 


	4. Puck's Intervention

**Summary:** Puck really wasn't surprised when it happened. He was just surprised that it took them this long to stick their noses where they didn't belong. He was a tiny bit surprised at how ridiculously stupid the whole thing turned. But only a little surprised. After all these were the gleeks he was dealing with.

**Pairings:** Samtana, Finnchel, Bartie, Klaine, Chang-squared and Wemma. Hints of Puckleberry and Quick (yes, I said Quick). Puck/Sam, Pezberry and Quick friendships

**Warnings:** No real spoilers involved in this story. It's obviously very AU as I totally made up Sam's family life. So nothing really spoilery in here. Be warned, this fic does deal with a very sensitive issue (child abuse and domestic violence). It's not too graphic but it is mentioned.

**Disclaimer:** I in no way shape or form own _Glee_ despite my continued efforts. I own Sam's brother Dean. And even that shtick is borrowed from Supernatural… which I also don't own.

**Author's Note:** So, I had a lot of cognitive dissonance going on while writing this story. I'll explain in more detail in the second author's note because I know some of you do read these and I don't want you to be spoiled. But needless to say this chapter is my least favorite and my favorite because something I've wanted for a long time happens but I'm not so sure I should've let it happen. Ugh, being a writer is so confusing! LOL. Hope you all enjoy this chapter

* * *

><p><strong>Puck's Intervention<strong>

Puck really wasn't surprised when it happened. He was just surprised that it took them this long to stick their noses where they didn't belong. He was a tiny bit surprised at how ridiculously stupid the whole thing turned. But only a little surprised. After all these were the gleeks he was dealing with. No one ever accused them of having much in the way of common sense or _**tact**_. Both of those qualities would tell you that Puck was better off being left alone. So he knew it was only a matter of when and just how ridiculous this whole thing would turn out. He got his answer almost two weeks to the day his mother casually announced is father was dead. He sighed as Sam met him outside Emma's office with Kurt in tow. Sam's expression was equal parts warning and annoyance. Puck knew if he wanted to make a run for it, Sam would distract Kurt long enough for him to get away. But since it took them this long to interfere, he figured he should get it over with.

"You know you don't actually have to do this," Sam said, correctly reading the decision on his face. Kurt squawked in the background but both boys ignored him.

"Yeah, actually I do. If we give them more time, they'll only be ten times more annoying when they come up with something else."

"We are not annoying," Kurt protested. "We're looking out for your mental health and well being as difficult as that may be to imagine given your largely pessimistic view of friendship."

"Not friendship," Puck corrected as he stepped into place beside Sam. He gave Kurt a wide smile. "Just you guys." Thankfully Kurt had no response to that one. That meant the short journey to the choir room was made in blissful silence.

Puck called upon all of his limited patience to suppress the urge to roll his eyes and storm off when they finally walked into the redesigned choir room. The chairs had been set up in a circle, though he did note that a few chairs remained on the outside. So it was going to be an intervention. Joy. He didn't bother to listen to whatever New Age bull crap they were trying to throw at him to justify why they **had** to do this. He merely sat down in the clearly designated seat and crossed his arms over his chest.

"Can we get this over with already? I've got a ton of homework and I've also got to lower my self respect and beg my mother to sign off on my college applications."

"Still?" Sam raised an eyebrow. "I thought Dean talked to her about that."

"She found a way to translate his logic into her usual bullshit and she's ignoring it. So I'm forced to go over there tonight and listen to her crap about how I should move back in."

Sam frowned but sat down in the seat outside the circle. Puck noticed that Quinn and Blaine were over there as well. Huh. Guess they're not being team players. His eyes flickered between the gleeks that were staging this intervention. Only Mercedes, Finn, Kurt and strangely enough Rachel looked like they wanted to be there. Santana looked like she was having serious second doubts. Artie was frowning and glaring at nothing in general which led Puck to believe that someone dragged him over there and then jammed his brakes. Mike was clearly being forced by Tina to attend and someone must've given Brittany the wrong information about why they were there because she was wearing an inappropriately bright smile. Did he mention that he totally loved Brittany?

"So we getting started or what?"

"Right!" Rachel said, taking lead. "Noah, we're gathered here today because we're concerned about how you're handling your father's untimely passing."

"I'd say I'm handling it pretty well."

"That's the thing," Finn jumped in. "You don't usually handle things well."

"Interesting. So because I'm not getting drunk, screwing cougars and stealing ATMs, you geniuses decided that warranted an intervention?"

Santana snorted loudly before reaching a conclusion in her internal debate. She got up and moved to the seat next to Sam. Mike also stood up to join the non intervention gleeks but only after removing the jam they used on Artie's wheelchair. He and Brittany were outside the circle less than a minute later.

"So I guess we're done."

"No, we're not done, Puck. You're repressing how you're feeling and it's not healthy."

"Oh? And you know how I'm feeling, do you?"

He could see Sam tensing at the clear challenge in his voice. But the others continued on. Puck caught Sam's gaze and wasn't surprised at the message warning him against big emotionally draining outbursts. He sighed again and resolved to soldier through this bullshit.

"It's ok to be sad," Mercedes said, gently. He nodded blankly. "When my grandfather died in freshmen year, I felt like everything stopped making sense. He helped raise me and my brother and then he was gone. It hurt really bad. I felt like no one understood. I was so angry all the time."

Puck's gaze softened somewhat. "I didn't know that. Sorry, Mercy," he said, genuinely. Mercedes blinked away tears and nodded.

"Dude, I know what it's like to lose a parent," Finn said, leaning forward with the honest, 'trust me' genuine eyes already working. "It's hard. But you have friends that are here for you."

Puck's eyes drifted outside the circle and he smiled despite himself. Rachel cleared her throat forcing him back in the moment. He growled under his breath.

"Look, I get it, ok? I can be sad and y'all will be there for me to hold my hand and sing songs about healing and give me tissues. I know this already. Now like I said I've got shit to do."

"This isn't a joke, Puck," Kurt cut in. "We're all really worried about you." Sam cleared his throat pointedly. "Fine, those of us in the circle are worried about you. Apparently they all agree with your self assessment."

"Knew they were the smart ones."

"Puck, your dad is dead!" Finn all but yelled.

He tried not to flinch but he couldn't help it. Even after two weeks, the sting was still there when he heard it. But for reasons these guys weren't connecting. It was officially time to wrap this shit up because it was getting ugly. Things were going to be said and he didn't have the energy to deal with the fallout. Clearly they had other ideas.

"Noah, your father died and you're acting like nothing happened. But he was your father."

Puck looked at Rachel in surprise. Out of all of them, it was her participation in this thing that confused (and hurt) the most. He expected this from Kurt, Finn and Mercedes….but Rachel? She knew him. Or at least she used to.

"I know how it is when you first get the news. You're numb but it's been two weeks, Puck," Kurt said, mistaking his silence for a cue to continue this. "We need you to let it go."

"Let what go?"

"The sadness."

Puck snorted. "Ok, I'm so done now."

"Puck…."

"No! Puck doesn't want to hear it, ok? I've been more than understanding and tolerant but I'm done! I'm not sure if you're all stupid or that fucking tragically naïve."

"What do you mean?" Rachel asked, hurt bleeding into her tone. Well so what? He hurt too having his dead dad waved in his face.

"You all remember that I live with Sam for a reason, right? It's because my dad used to beat the shit out of me for kicks."

There was a heavy silence where he thought maybe, just maybe, he finally got through to them. He was wrong yet again.

"I know that it was rough but there has to be something good you remember about your father," Mercedes tried.

So tragically naïve it was. Seriously he worried about these people in the real world. They believed that life was butterflies and rainbows. But since they took the time to stage this intervention, he supposed he could at least take the time to school them on how things worked outside the happy, bland family sitcom they all seemed to be living in.

"You what to know what I remember about my dad? I remember drawing a picture of our family in first grade. That was right around the time my sister was born. So I felt extra proud of including the baby. So I bought it home to show my dad. He called me a pansy and smacked me over the head with his beer bottle. I missed two weeks of school because they couldn't find a way to explain away the damn near cracked skull and black eyes."

He stood up and started pacing as the words flooded out of him. "But that was in the past, right? You probably want more recent. You'd think after he'd been gone for almost ten years that he would've mellowed out, right? But he didn't. Oh, wait, now he just knew not to leave marks where people could see. It helps being married to a nurse who could tell you where to hit to leave the most damage and the least amount of evidence. I guess I never told you guys how Sam knew for sure that something was wrong, huh. Well, it's because he saw the marks on my back from when my dad whipped me with his belt for who the fuck even knows why!

"The only good thing I remember about my father was the day he left. Best thing he ever did for me. Of course, he fucked it all up by coming back but yeah, Puckerman's aren't known for doing what's best for others." He ran a hand through his hair. "So yeah, I'm not sad that he's dead. I don't know what I'm feeling but it's not sadness. So now if we're done, I really do have stuff I need to do."

He didn't wait to see if they were going to try and stop him. He didn't even bother to grab his stuff. He was confident that Sam would get it for him. He left. He needed to be out of that room. He really was supposed to see his mother that evening but he didn't think that was going to be possible. Not when everything felt so…. raw. He didn't miss his father. He wasn't sad that he was dead but he also didn't want to think about him. He wanted to forget the man ever existed. Of course, the scars on his body were physical proof that he could never forget he existed. He knew they had good intentions but what he needed was to not talk about his dad's death. What he needed was to get away from this town and the legacy that his father left behind.

Puck came to a stop in his blind wanderings and looked around his current location with a snort of amusement. What was it with him and the bleachers? He slumped down onto one of the seats and stared out at the empty field. His father wasn't even proud to know that his son was on a Championship title winning team. He never offered to go to any of Puck's games. Then again neither did his mother. She always claimed she was working. Strangely her days off seemed to center around his sister's soccer games. Guess he really was the hated child all around.

He didn't react as someone joined him on the bleachers. He felt her drape his coat around his shoulders before taking a seat next to him. He moved closer to her, unconsciously seeking the warmth her body was putting off.

"So what exactly did you do to Sam to get the privilege of chasing after the head case? You didn't maim him did you?"

Quinn snorted even as she smacked him sharply on the arm. "You are not a head case. I don't want to hear you call yourself that again. And I didn't do anything to Sam. Right after you left he called Dean and asked him to pick him up. He left his keys with me to give to you. He probably would've given them to either Santana or Blaine but they were too busy shaming everyone else to notice that he was leaving."

Puck frowned, contemplating why Sam would've called Dean. But then he shook it off. If it was really important, they would tell him later. He was fairly confident that there were no secrets between him and the brothers. So he was content to push that issue to the side for now so that he could focus on trying to quiet the thoughts in his mind that were all clamoring for attention. He grabbed onto the most persistent and puzzling.

"Why were you guys outside the circle?"

"Because Sam knows you. And because Blaine and I understand."

Puck turned his head towards her. "You understand?"

"You're not sad because you're angry, Puck. Your father died and you never got a chance to let him know how much he hurt you. You never got the answers for why he hurt you."

"I'm not," Puck started but the look on her face silenced him. He turned away from her. "I'm not angry."

"I would be. If my dad died today, I'd be pissed. When I needed him the most, he threw me out. He still hasn't tried to apologize for that. He doesn't even talk about those days." Quinn clasped her hands together on her lap. "I'm so angry with him but I need to play the game. I want college and he's going to pay. So I play nice and hate him every single day. But if died today without me being able to tell him everything, I'd be angry."

Puck felt a familiar stinging in his eyes. He couldn't even blame Sam for this one. This time it was all him. "He had a heart attack, Q. A fucking heart attack in his sleep! The doctors said he probably didn't even wake up. It was peaceful."

Quinn placed a gentle hand on his shoulder. He felt the burning in his eyes growing. "I don't remember ever having a moment of peace when he was around. I remember fear, pain and humiliation but never peace. What the hell did that man do to deserve peace? He's dead and I still don't have peace. Because he fucking died! And he left me with all these feelings… and questions. And I don't understand what I did to deserve any of it!"

For the second time that day, Puck felt the words pour out of him. He told Quinn everything. And if he ever doubted that she was forgiven for everything in the past two years, it was erased in that moment. Because she stayed with him. She sat there and she listened to every word he had to say. After almost an hour of continuous babbling he was done. At some point he ended up holding onto Quinn's hand. He didn't remember if he reached for her or vice versa but it didn't matter. He was holding onto her like she was the only thing keeping his head above water. And at the moment, she was.

"I'm all over the place, Q."

"It's to be expected," she assured him.

"I tried to be what they wanted me to be and it wasn't right. So I tried to be the exact opposite of that and it still didn't work. I don't know why I'm not good enough. And shit… I'll never know."

Quinn squeezed his hand. "I wish I knew so I could tell you why. But I'm confused too. Because you're more than enough, Noah Puckerman. There are so many people that see who you are and love you. Sam loves you. Dean totally loves you….. I love you." He looked up in surprise. Quinn chewed on her lip for a moment before leaning forward and kissing him. It took him a moment to even realize what happened and before he could react in any way, she pulled away from him.

"You love me?"

She laughed humorlessly. "You actually seemed surprised. I told you that you were letting people see the real you. It's hard not to fall in love with the real you. Trust me, I've tried."

"Quinn, I…."

"I know," she smiled, finally meeting his gaze. "You love me but you're in love with Rachel. You're like Jewish soul mates, I get it. I needed to get that out of my system, really. The truth is I don't want to be number two anymore. So it'll take some time but I'll deal."

Puck felt a pang of regret. His life would be so much simpler if he loved Quinn like that. And he was completely aware of how ironic and hilarious that was given their history together. But a lot had changed in the months he'd been living with Sam. Quinn changed a lot in the months he'd been living with Sam. He knew that if he tried he could be in love with Quinn one day. But he'd always love Rachel and that wasn't fair to Quinn. She deserved better than Finn 2.0.

"Are we still ok?"

"What? Because now you know how I feel?" she asked, playfully. "We're ok, Puck. I've kind of been falling for you for awhile. Nothing changes because you know." She squeezed his hand again. "Just, you know if you ever want to get over Rachel, you have my number."

He laughed for the first time since what felt like forever. "Yeah, Q. I got your number. Who knows I might be using it soon. I think Finnchel is staying strong even though the tool tried to kill me on Thanksgiving."

Quinn made a humming noise and gestured with her chin at something in the distance. "I wouldn't be so sure about that," she murmured under her breath. Her gaze was locked on the tiny, brown eyed girl watching them sadly from the bottom of the stairs. Quinn leaned into his shoulder. "You should talk to her."

"What about you?"

"I'm fine. I promise. I'll go find Santana. I think I'm long overdue for a haircut. They work wonders on resolving potentially personality destroying life decisions."

"Maybe I should get a haircut."

Quinn gasped in mock horror. "Blasphemy! The 'hawk stays. It's part of who you are. And you're pretty amazing." She pressed a kiss against his cheek and stood up. "Remember, you have my number."

"Got you. And Quinn, you should try talking to your dad. You don't want to regret it later. You don't want to feel like this."

She nodded thoughtfully. "If he throws me out, you think Dean will take me in too?"

"That's all I need, two sisters and a brother," he grinned and watched her walk away laughing. He didn't know how Quinn Fabray worked her way back into his life but he hoped she stayed there. The small smile that formed when Quinn kissed his cheek didn't fade as Rachel went to sit next to him.

It was a testament to how far they'd grown apart that there was actually space between them. They'd never had a problem ignoring personal boundaries when it came to each other. But now he felt like there was practically a gulf in between them. It hurt. A lot.

"Did you want something, Rach?" he asked quietly, noticing she had yet to say a word.

"Are you and Quinn dating?"

"Do you care?" he frowned. "No, we're not. Because unlike you, I'm not in the habit of lying to myself."

"What does that mean?"

"What the hell do you think it means, Rach? I'm in love with you. You're in love with me but you're with St. Finn."

"Why…."

"Because I'm tired of pretending that I'm ok with this when I'm not. This isn't a movie. You don't get to chase after the perfect, dopey male lead while the right guy waits until the final act to make a move."

She didn't say anything but he felt the rift grow a little wider. "If this is about the intervention, I'm sorry."

"This is not just about the damn intervention! This is about the fact that everyone but you sees that we belong together! Even your boyfriend knows it."

"I know we do."

"Then what's the problem?"

"It's not that easy."

Puck rolled his eyes. "Yes, Rachel. It really is. The only problem is that you're so damn determined to make this into some sort of fantasy love story that can be translated into the story of your life later on. I hate to break it to you, Berry. But this is reality."

She scoffed and turned to him with fire burning in her eyes. "I know this is reality. I resent that you seem intent on insulting my intelligence."

"And I resent that you just helped stage an intervention to get me to mourn a man that doesn't deserve a single tear from me. You're so caught up in the fairytale that you don't see anything around you! This is reality. I have a dead father that hated me for god only knows what reasons and now that he's dead, I'll never understand. I have a baby mama that fell in love with me two years too late. And then I have you. I'm so fucking tired of trying to get you to understand that you're it for me. That I'm the one for you."

Rachel took a deep shaky breath. "What are you saying, Noah? Are you giving me an ultimatum?"

He snorted. "You'd love that, wouldn't you? Ratchet the dramatic tension even higher. I'm not giving you an ultimatum. I'm only putting the facts out there. I'm not going to be waiting forever for you, Rach. I love you but I deserve more than that. When you're ready to face this thing between us, you know where to find me."

"Where are you going?"

"Home," he sighed. "Too many heart to hearts and emotional talks for one day. I don't think I can deal with my mother tonight."

Rachel looked down at her hands thoughtfully. "What if I don't get it together in time? Are you going to stop being there? Because you know me, Noah. I have to analyze and obsess over everything. I can't make a decision this big very easily. I don't want to take too long and lose you forever."

Puck rolled his eyes fondly and smiled. "I know you. I know how you are and I know how that brain of yours works. I know you need to analyze everything and I'm ok with that. I just need you to analyze it. I need you to notice this between us."

"I know notice this between us and it scares me," she admitted, breathily. "I don't want to lose you, Noah."

"Hey, even if we got together and fell apart, I'll always be here, Rach. No matter what happens in life, I think we're always meant to be a part of each other's lives. You're one of my best friends. I think you forgot."

She gave him a small smile as well. "I think we both did. Because it works both ways." She placed a hand on his cheek. "I have a lot to think about. I'll see you tomorrow?"

"Yeah, tomorrow," he whispered in response. She gave him a brief kiss on his lips before bounding down the stairs. He sat back against the bleachers and exhaled. "I'm too young for this shit."

* * *

><p>He wasn't sure how long he was sitting on the bleachers but he realized with a start that it was a few hours longer than he originally intended. When Rachel left, the sun was still sitting high in the sky. When he snapped out of his contemplative silence, he saw the sun had set long ago bringing about an inch of snow and a deep chill that sank down to his bones. He shivered and frowned at his thin, not at all meant for winter weather jacket. Dean would never let him hear the end of this.<p>

He pulled his phone out of his bag and gasped. Screw that, Dean was going to kill him. It was almost 9 o'clock. Then again a quick check of the phone showed that he had no missed calls or messages from either brother. So it looked like they weren't terribly concerned after all. Maybe he was feeling overly sensitive from the day's extreme emotional vomit but the fact that they hadn't called hurt a little bit. He fastened his coat, trying to trap in the little warmth he had left, and made the slow trek to where Sam left the car that morning.

When he finally reached the car, he noticed a white sheet of paper underneath the window shield wiper. It was slightly damp but Dean's careless scrawl was still visible. '_Heard you had a bad day. Call me when you get home. Have some family stuff to take care of with Sam. Order a pizza._' Well that explained why that hadn't called at least. He was concerned about this "family stuff" they needed to take care of. Would it really kill Dean to just explain elaborate for once in his life? Puck paused, taking into consideration that this was Dean. Yes, it probably would kill him. Dean lived for delivering pointlessly cryptic short messages that had to be contemplated over for hours. The jerk.

He pulled into the driveway less than twenty minutes later and officially well after 9 o'clock. Just as he was about to call Dean and tell him that he finally made it home, the phone rang.

"Hello?"

"Hello? Hello? Seriously, what the hell do you mean 'hello'?"

Puck raised an eyebrow. "Isn't that the customary way people answer the phone? Or did you learn some new fancy way at work?"

"Dude, I don't care about phone etiquette. Where the hell are you?"

"I'm home."

"Don't lie to me."

"I'm not. I'm here."

"Bullshit! Me and Sam are here and I don't see you. Unless you're hiding under the bed again, which is just sad."

"Hey! That was only one time and you know I had a good reason for it! Anyway, jerk. I'm outside. I just pulled up."

Puck waited for some sort of answer. Instead the front door opened and Dean's head appeared. He sagged in visible relief upon seeing Puck getting out of Sam's car.

"You ever disappear on me like that again and you're grounded until college," Dean promised once Puck was standing in front of him. Though his tone was gruff, Puck could hear the underlying concern and worry in his voice. Made him feel a little warmer on the inside. Too bad the outside was still cold. "Tell me you wore more than this."

"I thought I'd be home before the snow started," Puck replied, rubbing his hands together. Dean rolled his eyes and pushed the teen through the door.

"And the reason you didn't turn the heat on in the car?"

"Burns gas."

"So you'd rather freeze to death on the way home? Next time, turn on the heat."

"It doesn't matter anyway," Puck shrugged. "It's not like I drive Sam's car that much and he's the smart one out of the two of us."

"And what does that make you?" Sam asked, leaning on the kitchen wall.

"The hot one."

"I've somehow been complimented and insulted at the same time. Good job. By the way, where have you been?"

"I was at school. I needed to think and I guess I lost track of time. I didn't call when I saw the note because I figured you'd be busy with the family stuff. I didn't want to intrude." Dean draped an arm around his shoulder while Sam smiled brightly. Puck narrowed his eyes looking between them suspiciously. "What?"

"The family stuff has been successfully resolved. By the way, I believe these belong to you," Sam said before tossing a set of keys at him. Puck caught them easily.

"These are the keys to my truck." He looked up in confusion. "Why do we have keys to my truck?"

"Because it would be really stupid to try driving without them."

"But my mom has my truck."

"I believe the word you're looking for is 'had'. She had your truck. And now we do," Sam corrected. Puck took a few hesitant steps towards the kitchen and the open garage door beyond his best friend. There in plain sight was his truck. His truck that he saved for years to buy was sitting in the garage next to Dean's car.

"That's what you went to take care of?" Puck asked.

"No, that was an added bonus," Dean smirked. "I was already intending to visit your mother this evening but then Sam called me and told me she was still giving you a hard time about the applications."

Puck groaned as he remembered he still had to take care of that. But at least he had the truck back. That was one last thing he had to do. "Wait, why were you planning on talking to my mom tonight?"

"As you already know the emancipation papers never went through completely. And now that your dad is dead, your mother can stop the process because the offender is no longer in the home."

Puck felt his stomach clench. "She can actually make me go back there?"

"Yeah, she could've but she can't now." Puck raised an eyebrow as Dean let go of him to reach into his work bag to pull out a piece of paper. "That's a legal document drafted by everyone's favorite legal Berry stating that I'm your legal guardian. And that I'm financially and morally responsible for you until you turn 18. I made the same kind of agreement when I took in Sam."

"So this means…"

"You're Dean's foster kid," Sam snickered. "You're like his son."

"Shut up, squirt. He's not my son. He's our annoying baby brother."

"Wait!" Puck held up a hand. "Baby brother? How the hell do you figure that one?"

"When's your birthday?"

"August."

"And how old are you going to be?"

"18."

"When's Sam's birthday?"

"April."

"And how old is he going to be?"

"18."

"And what comes first August or April?"

"April… damn it!"

"There's your answer. You're the baby."

Puck rolled his eyes but couldn't suppress the smile that was threatening to bloom. "Does that mean I don't have to go beg my mother to sign my applications?"

"It means your applications have already been signed," Dean grinned, waving to the neat stack of papers on the desk in the living room.

"I knew you loved me."

Dean groaned and rolled his eyes. "Damn it, it's like I'm living in a house full of chicks!" he stomped away, muttering loudly about girly brothers. Puck smiled wider as he heard going into the kitchen to order a pizza with all the toppings Puck liked. This baby brother thing wasn't so bad after all.

"So what were you doing at school all this time?" Sam asked, dropping down onto the couch. Puck shuffled over to sit beside him. "I thought you'd be home long before us."

"I was pretending to be Finn."

"Huh?"

Puck snorted. "Quinn's in love with me."

"Oh. So she told finally told you?"

He nodded. "Yeah, she told me. She was cool about it too. Then Rachel came by and I was talking to her about everything. Now I know how Finn feels."

"Screw how Finn feels. How do you feel?"

"All over the place. Quinn was right. I'm pissed that my dad died. But maybe it's for the best that I never know for sure. I don't know."

"You'll figure it out."

Puck rolled his head to the side to face Sam. "How do you know?"

"Because you've got two really awesome big brothers."

Puck felt the warmth of the words and the reality wash over him. He had brothers. He knew that Dean had pretty much adopted him from the first day he moved in. But this was legally binding confirmation that someone out there in the world wanted him even though his parents didn't. That was enough to give him some peace. But there was no way he was going to let Sam know that one.

"You're such a girl, Samantha."

"Only for you, Puckerman."

"Hey, Sammy?"

"Yeah?"

"Does this mean that I'm Noah Evans now?"

"Only if you want to be."

Puck grinned. "It does have a certain ring to it."

"Yeah, and you guys didn't even have to go to Canada and get married to make it happen!" Dean's voice drifted out from the kitchen.

"Shut up, Dean!"

* * *

><p>Hours later, both Sam and Puck were sprawled across the sofa, pretty much dead to the world. Consciousness suddenly grabbed him and Puck flinched away from the ironclad grip on his shoulder. It took his mind a few moments to process where and when he was and that the hand that was now hovering over his shoulder belonged to Dean.<p>

"You looked like you were having a bad dream," Dean said, keeping his voice low so that he didn't disturb Sam who was sleeping on the other end of the sofa. Puck sat up carefully and moved closer to where Dean was seated on the arm of the sofa. "You ok?"

"Yeah, just thinking about stuff," he replied, looking down at his hands. "You really sure about this whole taking me in thing?"

"I already took you in, genius. That piece of paper just makes it legally binding and stuff. But nothing changes from before. Except I'm going to have to find that balance between not being a shitty parent that lets you do what you want and being a cool brother. Man, life is so hard."

"That's what I mean. You sure you want to go through all that for me?"

"In case you're a little slower than I thought, I'm kind of attached to you and the other drooling idjit. I told you, the world hates me. It gave me two annoying, pain in the ass little brothers. You belong with us, kiddo. So stop second guessing it and go to bed." Dean ran a hand over Puck's hair. "And your own bed. It's a little disturbing how often you and Sam end up in the same bed."

Puck grinned. He knew Dean was more than aware of how and, most importantly, why Puck and Sam ended up in the same bed. It was the same reason he knew to wake him just now. He might be starting to move past all of the damage in his childhood slowly but surely but that didn't help him at night. At night, he couldn't escape it all.

"Get some sleep. You're going to need all the strength you can get to deal with the massive amounts of apologies all the other gleeks are going to throw at you for this pathetic intervention."

Puck rolled his eyes. "I'm not going to school."

"Yeah, you are. Be the bigger man. Now off you go. I get to wake Sleeping Ugly over here."

"Be careful," Puck warned, rising to his feet. "He's knocked out. When he's like this, he's overly affectionate and cuddly."

"I've lived with the twerp for ten years. I think I know how to wake him up."

Puck shrugged. He did warn him. He walked out the room as Dean was poking Sam on the stomach. He didn't even need to see what was going on to understand that the high pitched yelp emitted by Dean meant that he found out how cuddle happy a sleeping Sam could be.

"Don't be the little spoon, Dean! You'll regret it in the morning! And despite what he promises, he won't call you!"

Dean's muttered cursing followed him up the stairs and into his room. He was still laughing softly when he realized he wasn't alone in his room. There sitting on his bed as if she belonged there was Rachel Berry. She was wearing a white tank top and the fuzzy blue cow pajama pants that he gave her as a joke the previous year for Hanukkah.

"What are you doing here?"

She patted the space on the bed beside her. He closed the door behind him gently, not wanting to let Dean or Sam know Rachel was here before he found out what she wanted. He sat down slowly but kept his eyes locked on her. He didn't know what it meant that she was here. He knew what he hoped it meant. But really, he was way too cynical to believe that suddenly everything he wanted was in his reach.

"While I am still a little resentful of you pointing out that I tend to imagine my life as a movie, I appreciate that you did. Because you're right."

"You snuck into my room to tell me that?" he teased with a slight grin, leaning against the headboard. "You could've sent me a message, Berry."

"I did not come here just to tell you that," she chided, smacking him on the arm lightly. She shifted so they were seated side by side with their arms brushing against each other. "I came here to tell you that I made my decision. And I didn't even need to make a list."

"Oh yeah?" he asked, amusement evident in his voice. He craned his neck to look at her. "I thought you couldn't make a decision this big easily."

"That's because I was thinking about it the wrong way. I was thinking about it from the unrealistic perspective. But when I stopped and really thought about it, there was no decision to make. There was only ever one option."

He swallowed. "And that was?"

"Us," she replied with a bright smile. "It's always been us and always will be us."

"What about Finn?"

"I broke up with him. After I left you, I went back to the choir room and he was still waiting. I took one look at him and I knew that I couldn't lie to myself any longer. And Finn just knew. It was like he realized that it wasn't meant to be either. So that was good. I didn't have to make him cry and he's not likely to try to hit you in the face tomorrow. That actually works out because I'm certain that Sam doesn't really need anymore reasons to want to kill Finn these days."

He was speechless. Of all the ways he thought this day would come to an end, being all but adopted and getting the girl were definitely nowhere on his list. She was staring back at him with big, shiny brown eyes waiting for him to say something, anything. All he could do was shake his head.

"You just had to prove me wrong, didn't you?"

"How did I do that?"

"This is just like one of those stupid romantic comedies you and Satan always trick me into watching with you."

She laughed and he felt loved. He felt peace. "You're right. This is just like a movie. The hero gets the girl. And the girl gets the right guy."

He snorted. "Since when have I been the hero of this piece?"

Rachel gave him a serious look. "Since forever, Noah. Since forever." She crawled onto his lap and wrapped her arms around his shoulders. His own arms wound around her waist. "I'm sorry."

"For what?"

"For a lot of things. For making you feel like you had to make me notice you when sometimes you're all I see. For letting Finn drive us apart when I was with you first. For not turning Finn down when he said he wanted this year. I should've run straight to you. But I didn't and I wasted so much time. I'm so sorry."

"I'm not going to lie, because we don't do that with each other," he started. "It hurt knowing that you were with him when you should be with me. But we're together now. And we're going to stay that way? No breaking up with me because you think we 'want things too much'?"

She smiled and bumped her nose against his. "Yes, we're going to stay this way. The only thing I want too much is you."

"Man, you're cheesy, Rach."

"Noah!"

"I'm kidding… kinda. The point is that we're together now and we're going to make it work this time. Problem solved. But if you're so inclined, I can think of at least a dozen ways you can start to make it up to me," he smirked lecherously.

Her lips curled back in a smile before she closed the small distance between them. He could feel her breath against his cheek. "Oh, I definitely think that can be arranged."

And then their lips met and the world finally made sense again. Kissing Rachel was the equivalent of coming home. He never felt the way he did when he was wrapped around this girl. Quinn was right. They were like Jewish soul mates. And now that he had her, he was never letting her go. Or rather, he was letting her go for right now because he heard muffled voices in the hallway and the sounds of shuffling feet.

"Keep quiet," he whispered to her. She nodded, leaning her head against his. They listened as Dean and Sam bickered a little more before parting ways in the hallway to their separate rooms. Puck looked down at Rachel in amusement. "You spending the night?"

"Yes," she replied in a hushed whisper. "I don't want you to wake up and think it wasn't real. This is real."

Damn, this girl knew him so well. He nodded and brushed his lips against her forehead. As quickly and quietly as possibly, he changed his clothes and made his way back to the bed. He slipped under the sheets and pulled her into his arms. This was how it was meant to be. He was going to tell her exactly that when there was a knock on the wall behind his bed. He groaned and knocked back.

"Night, Puck."

"Night, Sammy."

They both paused and waited. "Night, John Boy."

"Shut up, Dean!"

Rachel lifted her head to look at him in amusement. "You do this every night?"

"It's our thing," he shrugged with one shoulder. He was leaning in for another kiss when Sam knocked on the wall again.

"Good night, Rachel," was the chorused response from both Evans brothers.

She groaned, burying her face in his neck. Puck chuckled. No, he had no idea how they knew she was here but clearly they were ok with it as neither one of them was making her leave. He kissed her hair softly. "It's customary to say goodnight too. Besides they'll keep this going all night if you don't say it back."

"Uh, good night Dean and Sam."

"Puck, no sexy times or you're grounded until college!"

He rolled his eyes. Looked like Dean wasn't having trouble balancing the cool brother and good parent act with him at all.

"Goodnight, Noah," Rachel whispered, placing her head on his shoulder again. "I love you."

They didn't have sex that night and honestly there was more tongue action involved in his kiss with Quinn than he got all night but he couldn't stop smiling at hearing those three little words. After waiting nearly three years to hear them, it was almost as good as sex. Almost. Kind of…. but whatever. For tonight, he was content to curl around Rachel and whisper in her ear.

"I love you too, Rach."

* * *

><p>*And it's complete (the chapter, not the story). Now I can fully rant about the insanity that was my writing this chapter. The Puckleberry fan in me was ready to kill the part that thought Quick was a good idea. I swear that whole QuinnPuck kiss just happened on its own. For a few moments, I was ready to just let it happen. But I like the way it ended. I only hope you all do as well. The updates for this might slow down a bit because I'm currently trying to work on another multi-chapter story. But never fear my shiny readers I'm not abandoning this story. I just suffer from attention difficulties and need to focus on one story at a time. Ciao for now.


	5. Misery Loves Sammy

**Summary:** Never in his wildest or darkest thoughts did Sam Evans ever imagine it could come to this. Today was the second anniversary of the day he lost his parents. And if Puck got his way, it would be the day that he lost his brothers as well. And at the end of the day, he could blame everyone and everything but this whole fucked up situation was all Sam's fault.

**Pairings:** Samtana, Puckleberry, Bartie, Klaine, Chang-squared and Wemma. Past Finnchel. Mentions of Quick. Suck, Pucktana, Pezberry and Puck/Blaine (Plaine?) friendships

**Warnings:** No real spoilers involved in this story. It's obviously very AU as I totally made up Sam's family life. So nothing really spoilery in here. Be warned, this fic does deal with very sensitive issues (child abuse, domestic violence and homophobia). It's not terribly graphic but it is mentioned and discussed by several characters.

**Disclaimer:** I in no way shape or form own _Glee_ despite my continued efforts because if I did Chord Overstreet would still be on the show. I do own Sam's brother Dean. But even that shtick is borrowed from _Supernatural_… which I also don't own. I also don't own _Friday_ (thank the stars).

**Author's Note:** It's been over a month since I posted anything. Wow. Well, here I am with the latest installment. I'm not as happy with this one as I've been with the others, so I'm just going to apologize in advance. I find that I don't write bad guy Sam too well. So this will be the last time we see that. Hope someone finds some enjoyment in this chapter. I promise it will not be another month between chapters again.

* * *

><p><strong>Misery Loves Sammy and Sammy Really Loves to Share<strong>

Never in his wildest or darkest thoughts did Sam Evans ever imagine it could come to this. To be honest, he never thought that it would even be a possibility. Ever since September, he'd felt protective, **responsible**, for Puck. They were more than best friends. They were brothers. They weren't supposed to end. Family was supposed to be forever. Then again today was proof that nothing lasts forever. Especially when it came to the people that Sam called family. After all today was the second anniversary of the day he lost his parents. And if Puck got his way, it would be the day that he lost his brothers as well because there was no way that Dean wasn't going to be pissed at him when he found out the whole story. Because at the end of the day, he could blame everyone and everything but this whole fucked up situation was all Sam's fault.

* * *

><p>Five Hours Earlier…<p>

Mandatory service day. Never in his life did he think it was possible to hate three words so much. Well, that wasn't entirely accurate. He really hated the words "I'm so sorry for your loss". Those words were pretty fucking grating too. But at the moment, even they couldn't trump his unnatural hatred for the entire concept of a service day, much less a mandatory one. Apparently it was a previously unknown requirement for graduation and despite Dean's best (so he claimed) efforts he couldn't Sam out of attending school that day. Really if had been any other day, Sam wouldn't care. He'd grin and bear it with the other gleeks. But it wasn't any other day. It was today and today sucked.

"Sammy," Dean sighed as he stumbled into Sam's room. Sam glanced up from where he was shoving his books into his bag. Dean looked like shit. And that was putting it nicely. His older brother caught the flu from hell from one of his "snot nosed bastard clients" and it had knocked him thoroughly on his ass. Ordinarily Sam would've been sympathetic but this was the one day out of the year where his human empathy was dangerously low.

"What do you want, Dean?"

"I know what today does to you but maybe this is a good thing."

Sam snorted, strands of hair blowing up at the exhalation. "That flu must be messing with your head worse than I thought. How the hell can any of this be a good thing?"

Dean coughed and slumped down on Sam's desk chair. "I'm just saying that maybe being outside of the house today might help you. Last year you got really depressed and you were pretty scarily withdrawn, bro. Maybe it'll help being around your friends today."

Sam glared at the pale, sickly figure in front of him before narrowing his eyes in thought. "Speaking of friends, where is the one that lives with us?" Dean glanced down at his hands. Sam laughed humorlessly. "Of course, he's with Blaine. The one day I might actually need him, he's off with his new boyfriend!"

Dean sighed. "Sam, I know that you're feeling really…."

"No! You promised you wouldn't start analyzing me. I'm not one of your clients, Dean. You can't use your therapeutic bullshit on me."

"Well it would be easier to remember that if you'd stop acting like one of them," Dean pointed out, snidely. "Seriously Sammy, it's only been two years but I swear every year around this time I simultaneously want to hug you and punch the crap out of you. Congratulations on inspiring such a variety of emotions! And for the record, Sam, I hope you remember that they were my damn parents too!"

Sam winced as Dean stormed out the room and into his own, slamming the door shut behind him. He glanced at the clock. It wasn't even eight o'clock and he'd already managed to piss off one person. He knew it was wrong. They shared the same parents and it was obvious that Dean would be suffering just as much, if not more. Dean had more years with their parents and now was tasked with raising his brat brother and the stray that Sam brought home. This was just as hard for Dean as it was for Sam.

Sam went to his brother's door and knocked. "Uh, Dean, it's me. I just wanted to say that I'm really sorry. I, uh, just need you to know that. Ok."

Dean opened the door and sniffled. The corners of his lips twitched upwards as he watched his brother shuffle nervously in front of the door. "You're forgiven, brat. Just take it easy today. Ok? You're really the worst kind of angry person."

"I thought that was you and Puck."

"No, we punch things and get it out of our system. You're passive aggressive and that's way worse. You let it build up until you can't take it any more and then you lash out. And some of the things you say hurt worse than anything me or Puck could do."

"I thought I said no psychoanalyzing."

"That wasn't psychoanalysis. That was brother analysis," Dean smirked. "Go to school, get it over with and for the love of all that's holy, try not to piss of the world. Ok?"

Sam nodded his head. "Yeah, ok."

He could do this. He could go to school, do this service crap and then come home and try to salvage the rest of this horrible day with his brothers. He could totally do this.

* * *

><p>He couldn't do this. Today was a shitty horrible day and everything and everyone was pissing him off. The entire concept of the service day was pissing him off as well. It basically involved the entire senior class trading off to help out various teachers and school staff with activities and regular duties within the school. It was less a service day and more glorified slave labor day. His newfound devotion to not being an asshole dwindled upon arriving at school and finding no sign of Puck. It continued to decrease when he was assigned to freshmen English with Finn (of all people, really?) where Finn proceeded to confuse the students more than they were already confused, leaving Sam to do the majority of the work. By the time the bell rang, signaling the end of the period, he was ready to slaughter Finn and shove off the promise to be the better man today. And there was still no sign of Puck.<p>

His second period was with Rachel. They were scheduled to help the gym teacher with inventory. It should've been a fun assignment. He really did enjoy Rachel's company. She was pretty much guaranteed to be his sister-in-law and she was Santana's best friend. That pretty much meant that Sam would've found any way under the sun to force himself to like her. Luckily, he didn't have to. On a good day, they would've had fun cataloging the supplies. But it wasn't a good day. It was today.

"You see Puck this morning?"

Rachel looked up from the checklist in her hand. Her brow furrowed as she looked at Sam. "Yes, he was with Blaine this morning. I think they had these first two service periods together with Quinn and Mercedes."

"It doesn't bother you that they're spending so much time together?"

Rachel shrugged. "Not really. I mean it would be nice to spend more time with him but I can't complain about the amount of time they're spending together. Not when I'm the one that wasted so much time keeping Noah away."

Sam narrowed his eyes. Why did Rachel have to make sense? Why was she not joining him here in the irrationally crazy and jealous zone? He was man enough to admit that he was jealous. He was totally jealous that for some reason Puck now preferred the company of Blaine over him. He was jealous. And it was today. That was the only explanation he had for the words that came out of his mouth next.

"And you're sure he's been with Blaine all those times?"

"What?"

"I mean that you know for certain that he's with Blaine and not someone else. Someone like Quinn?" Sam kept his eyes trained on the paper in front of him. But he heard the sharp intake of Rachel's breath.

"Noah would tell me if he was spending time with Quinn. He wouldn't have to hide it. Besides there is nothing going on between them."

"That's very big of you, Rachel. Trusting your boyfriend with a girl that blatantly told him she was in love with him and kissed him."

Rachel's clipboard fell to the ground. Sam looked up to see her standing in shock. So that would be a no as to whether Puck told Rachel about the kiss. Interesting…...

"Excuse me, Sam. I have something I need to take care of. I trust that you can finish the inventory on your own."

Sam blinked as Rachel spun on her heels and marched out the room. In the back of his mind, he knew he should be feeling really guilty about that but he shrugged it off. He was miserable and he really didn't care if everyone else was too.

An hour later, Sam's campaign of misery continued. He'd managed to make Artie completely and utterly depressed by randomly spouting off facts about the lack of empirical evidence showing lasting relationships between hot able bodied females and handicapped geeks. He'd totally alienated both Mike and Tina who spent the rest of the day giving him looks mixed between concern and confusion. Kurt was also keeping his distance, most likely having heard from Mike, Tina and Artie that Sam was not acting normally.

Santana apparently did not get this memo as she approached her boyfriend as she normally did. She was midway through telling him about how Rachel very loudly and very publicly broke up with Puck when she caught onto the rigid body language from the normally physically affectionate Sam.

"You ok today, Sammy?"

Sam's jaw clenched. "When exactly did I give everyone permission to call me Sammy? Everyone's doing it now. You, Puck, Mike, Artie! I think Kurt started to call me that the other day as well!"

Santana blinked, taking a step back. "If you don't want us to call you that, all you have to do is say so. No more Sammy. Got it."

"Great!" Sam snapped. "Just freaking great."

"What crawled up your ass today?"

"The day crawled up my ass, Santana. Today is a really shitty, horrible day and I just don't feel like acting like I give a damn."

She raised an eyebrow. "So you're saying that you only act like you give a damn when you're with me?"

"What do you think?" he asked.

Santana nodded. "I think that I'm walking about from you now before I do something that only one of us is going to regret." If it was any other day, Sam might have noticed the way her voice shook on the last few syllables. If it was any other day, he might've noticed that her hands were shaking as well. But it was today and he was oblivious. "Whenever you feel like pulling your head out of your ass, come find me."

He watched her go with a growing awareness that if he continued on this way, he was most likely not going to have any friends by the end of the day. Maybe there was more to Dean's theory about him being passive aggressive after all. He'd ask someone about that but he's pretty much scared off everyone else. Well everyone but Puck. But he hasn't seen Puck even once today and the day was almost over. Seriously, they were two periods away from the end of the school day and he hadn't seen his so called "brother" at all. The one fucking day he actually needed him and Puck goes into hiding. Typical.

Sam growled under his breath and headed towards his next class. Thankfully that one was gleek free as he was pretty sure that he's going to end up friendless and alone before this whole mess is over and done with. So while it would make working boring, at least he didn't have to worry about making any more of his friends cry.

And then he turned the corner and ran straight into the one person he was both longing and loathe to see. He bounced back and watched as Puck's features morphed from anger to confusion to relief back to anger. Wait… he was angry with Sam?

"Dude, what the hell did you say to Rachel?"

Sam rolled his eyes. "You're kidding me, right? You haven't said a word to me all day and this is what you're coming at me with?"

"Uh, yeah. Thanks to you I not only don't have a girlfriend anymore, I also have detention!"

"Wait, why do you have detention?"

"Because when Rachel went off on me screaming about how I was probably cheating on her with Quinn, I thought the only person hateful enough to tell her that was Finn. So I punched him in the face in the middle of the freshmen gym class."

Sam's eyes widened. For a moment, the fog that settled over him for the day lifted as he imagined Finn's reaction to that one. But as quickly as the moment came, it was over. He shrugged.

"Sorry, sucks," he replied, flippantly. He started to walk past him when Puck grabbed his shoulder. "Let me go."

"No," Puck said, firmly. "Not until you tell me what the hell is going on with you. You're acting like Bizarro Sam."

"Really now? How would you know that exactly? It's not like you've spent more than ten minutes with me in the past two weeks!"

"Sam, I live with you! If you want my attention that bad, you can just bang on the wall. Hell you bang on the wall for less. The other day you knocked on the wall to tell me to lower your window because you were cold. And I did it even though it involved me leaving my nice warm bed to go your room and close your window. Which your bed is pretty close to by the way. So if you wanted or needed my attention, you're completely aware on how to do that."

Sam blinked. He did have a point. But then again, no he didn't. Because honestly, he was acting as if everything was alright. He was acting like this wasn't the anniversary of the most horrible day of his life and that shit hurt. The fact that Puck could forget something like this hurt. And the fact that he was justifying his blatant dismissal of Sam for the past few weeks also hurt. So he did what every passive aggressive person did. He hurt back.

"You know I'm starting to sense a pattern with you, Puck. You get someone you call your best friend and then eventually you get bored with them and move onto the next one. First it was Finn. Now it's me. I wonder who you'll replace Blaine with."

Puck's jaw twitched. "That's a really low blow, Sam."

"It's the truth, Puck. You know if I knew it was going to end up like this, I wouldn't have even bothered."

"Bothered to what?"

"Bothered to follow you that night."

Puck flinched and took a step back. He swallowed and took a moment before speaking. His voice came out calm and flat. "I'm starting to wish that you didn't. Don't worry, Sam. I can pack my shit up and be out by the end of the night."

Sam's brain caught up with the conversation and he realized that he took it a step too far. He reached out to grab at the arm that Puck had pulled away. "Puck, I'm…."

"Don't touch me," his friend hissed, jerking away from his grasp. "Just stay the fuck away from me, Sam. There is nothing you have to say to me that I want to hear. You made yourself perfectly clear."

Sam watched in stunned disbelief as Puck walked away from him. He just left. And Sam couldn't do anything to stop it. Wasn't sure if he should do anything to stop it. The reality was that Dean was right. This day brought out a side of Sam that he could do without ever showing people. Everything that came out of his mouth today only hurt everyone around him. He glanced up when he heard familiar voices coming near him. Mercedes, Kurt and Tina paused when they saw Sam. He didn't even open his mouth before all three were spinning on their heels and sprinting in the opposite direction. Way to go, Sam. You've completely screwed this up. He had no friends, no brother, no girlfriend and no parents. Yeah, officially the best day ever.

* * *

><p>Present...<p>

Sam was moping. He was secure enough in his jerk-like behaviors to admit that he was moping. He'd screwed everything up because he was feeling sorry for himself. He hurt everyone around him because he was feeling sad. He scrubbed a hand over his face as if that could block out the stupidity that'd been spewing out his mouth all day long. Not likely.

"For the record, I don't know why I'm even here," Santana said, breezing into his choir room refuge and taking a seat on the bottom row beside him. "Seriously, I don't know why I even bothered. But Mercedes said she saw you sulking. She thought you might try to maim yourself with a drumstick. And since Finn's already pretty depressed about the black eye from Puckerman, I figured I'd better see if I could find you something else to maim yourself with. Might I suggest a cymbal?"

Sam sat up straight and looked at his girlfriend, or was that ex-girlfriend? He wasn't entirely clear about that. The only thing he was clear about was that he was so sorry. He might have said it out loud. He didn't know.

"What's going on with you today? You're not acting my boyfriend."

"I'm still your boyfriend?"

She shook her head. "You're not my boyfriend. My boyfriend is geeky, dorky, and too sweet for his own good. Not the jerk that's been on campaign to out douche Finn and St. Doucheface all day. Sadly, you're in the lead by a few points."

Sam mustered a weak grin. "Today… is the second year anniversary of the day my parents died." Santana let out a small, surprised gasp. He frowned and tilted his head to the side. "And I've come to the terrible realization that you didn't know, did you?"

"Sam, if I knew I would've… well I don't know what I would've done but it would've been something."

Sam swallowed. "If that's the case then I know Puck didn't know either."

"How do you know that?"

"Because, he would've gone out of his way to make sure that you all knew. So the fact that he hasn't been out spreading the word about today means that he didn't know. This means I'm an even bigger asshole than previously suspected."

Santana shrugged but didn't disagree. "So that's why you've been on a roll today."

"Yeah," Sam admitted. "I'm really sorry, San. I never wanted to hurt any of you. Especially not you, Santana. I would never want to hurt you. I love you."

"You love me?" a slow smile spread across her face. "You're not just saying that because you know you fucked up majorly today, are you?"

"Yes and no," Sam grinned somewhat.

"The jury will accept that answer," Santana's smile grew. "And it's only because today is the anniversary of something tragic that I will put aside my hatred for your magical vagina growing powers and tell you that I love you too, Samm… Sam."

He held onto her hand. "I love it when you call me Sammy."

She placed a kiss on his cheek. "I love you, Sammy." She looked down at their hands and shook her head. "You know I was fully prepared to come in here and kick your ass for being a jerk all day. You always throw me off my game."

"I totally fucked up everything today. Rachel probably hates me. The others are scared of me. And Puck definitely hates me and wants to move out."

Santana scoffed. "Puck doesn't hate you. Puck is pissed off and hurt. So he's going to say whatever he can to protect himself. He did that when Rachel broke up with him the first time. He was swearing that he was going to break up with her because she didn't let him touch her boobs. So I wouldn't take anything that he said to heart."

"But I think he's serious, San. He was talking about packing up his stuff. He's packed up for less serious things than this."

"Yeah, well it is a problem. You might want to explain to him why you've been acting like a jerk all day long."

"Another problem, he's definitely not talking to me. He doesn't want me anywhere near him."

Santana hummed thoughtfully. One thing he could say about having his best friend and his girlfriend this close was that it was helpful when he needed to know how to fix things with the other one. He watched her dark eyes light up when she finally reached a conclusion.

"You need to get him in a place where he can't run away from you. Somewhere you can force him to talk to you. Somewhere isolated and without an audience."

"That's not at home," Sam pointed out. "The second Dean finds out about all of this, he's going to start coughing on me. Dean is a big believer in bio-warfare."

"Just another reason why your home is way more awesome than mine," Santana grinned. "But no, I wasn't suggesting home. Think, Sammy. What does Puck have after school today?"

"Detention? You want me to crash detention? I thought the whole point of detention is to punish students. How is it a punishment if they're letting us talk?"

"That's regular detention. As soon as Mr. Schue found out that Puck punched Finn and was having a raging emo fit, he swooped in like a sweater vest wearing superhero and arranged for Puck to have detention with him. So you know it's just going to be one big talk fest. One that you're going to be in on."

"Again, they're not going to let me crash detention."

"Right, so that's why you're going to get detention," Santana's grin grew to a full-blown evil smirk. He really did love this woman.

"I'm scared to say that actually makes sense. Ok, so I'm going to get detention. Just one more question."

"Shoot."

"How do I get detention?"

Santana cooed. "Aw, you're so cute. You really don't know."

Sam rolled his eyes. "I'm not exactly in the habit of breaking the rules, you know?"

"Well then it's a good thing you're dating me and you're bff with Puckerman. We'll teach you the ropes."

"Yeah, I'll pass. Just tell me how to get detention today."

"There are several options. But there's one that is guaranteed to get you detention as well as fun for all the boys and girls."

Sam's brow furrowed in thought before he understood what Santana was saying. A grin spread across his lips. "This is going to be fun."

* * *

><p>"Sam! Sam Evans, I know you hear me!"<p>

Sam paused in his self satisfied walk to Mr. Schuester's office where he would be serving detention. He was quite possibly the only student in the history of McKinley that was excited about serving detention. Excited and nervous. What if Puck didn't want to hear him out? What if Puck really did mean it when he said he was going to move out?

"Sam!"

"What, Rachel?"

"Why on earth did you punch Finn in the face?"

Sam tried to keep the grin off his face. He really did. He really failed at it. "I had to get detention. And it seemed like the best option."

"Why would you _want_ to get detention?" Rachel asked, hopelessly confused.

"Because I need to apologize to Puck and you know how he is. He's in defensive mode right now. So I figured detention with Mr. Schue might be the best way for me to get through to him."

"Oh," Rachel replied, quietly. "That's actually kind of sweet."

"Yeah," Sam shrugged. "And I also owe you an apology, Rachel. I'm having a really horrible day and I took it out on you and everyone else. I just need you to know that. I don't know what's going on with Puck and Blaine, but I do know that he would never cheat on you with Quinn. I think it's pretty safe to say he'd never cheat on you, period."

Rachel smiled softly. "I figured all that out after a few hours of girl talk with Quinn and Brittany. I sent him a message telling him that I took it all back. It only counts as a breakup if it lasts more than eight hours. It's been four."

Sam shook his head in disbelief. "You and Puck are so weird. Don't ever change, ok?"

"Same to you, Sam," Rachel grinned. "I know he's angry right now, but he does think you're the best thing that ever happened to him."

"Yeah, I know. I just need him to understand that works both ways. I'm really happy for all the things that he's brought into my life too."

"You'll get through to him," Rachel assured him. "Just think outside the box. Traditional apologies don't work with Noah. You have to get his attention first."

"Thanks, Rachel," Sam said, sincerely, pulling the girl in for a quick hug. "And I'm really sorry."

"I know. Just go fix things with Noah and everything is forgotten."

"I'll try," Sam promised. The bell for the end of the day rang. "Wish me luck?"

"You don't need it," Rachel said, with a smile. "You'll know what to do." She gave him one last smile before walking down the hall towards Quinn, Brittany and Santana. He watched her go and wished that he could summon the same amount of confidence in himself that she had in him. But she was right. He would find a way to figure this out because Puck was one of the best things that happened to him. So there was no way he was going to let that go without a fight.

And a fight was exactly what he had on his hands. He walked to into Will's office and had to restrain the urge to flinch at the glare Puck threw at him.

"Why the hell is he here?" Puck growled at their teacher.

"Because apparently you both think that Finn's face is an appropriate target practice," Will replied, disappointment clear in his tone. Though Sam didn't think he was imaging the slight twinkle in his eye. "And also Sam, thank you for going for the same eye. That was very courteous of you."

"You're very welcome, Mr. Schue," Sam grinned.

"Yes, well, I don't know what's going on with either of you today but I have a feeling that it's got something to do with whatever is making Puck glare at the floor." He leaned against the desk and took in the two boys in front of him. "I don't think you two realize how special your friendship really is."

"Mr. Schue?" Puck raised a hand, tearing his glare away from the innocent floor at last. "No offense, but I really don't want to hear about how awesome our bromance _was_. It's over. Sam made that clear. So can we just sit here in silence until this crap is over with?"

Will's mouth opened and closed. "I guess…. If that's what you want."

"Never wanted anything more in my life," Puck agreed.

He then went back to his stare off with the floor. Sam really wanted to point out that he was pissed at him and not the floor. But he suspected Puck would be less amused by that and more enraged. And judging by the already impressive black and blue marking on Finn's eye before Sam even hit him, getting Puck enraged was probably not the best idea. So he sat back in his seat and waited.

About ten minutes into detention, Will received a text message. He claimed it was an emergency that he had to handle right away but he'd be back as soon as possible. Puck never lifted his head and thus missed the wink that Will gave Sam. Sam received a message from Rachel a few moments later reminding him to think outside the box.

"Puck?"

"Shut up, Sam."

"But I…."

"I don't want to hear it. I just want to get through this shit in peace. I can't believe I got detention on a goddamn Friday because you want to be a pissy bitch all day!"

Sam opened his mouth to say something more when he finally knew what he had to do. Think outside the box. Throw him off his guard. He shook his head at the utter ridiculousness of what he was about to do but then he remembered, it was for Puck. That trumped everything.

_Seven a.m., waking up in the morning_

Puck lifted his head at the quiet voice. His brow was furrowed as he clearly tried to process what Sam was singing.

_Gotta be fresh, gotta go downstairs_

_Gotta have my bowl, gotta have cereal_

"I know what you're doing, Sam. And no!" Puck protested, crossing his arms over his chest. Sam smirked and continued a little louder.

_Seein' everything, the time is goin'_

_Ticking' on and on, everybody's rushin_

_Gotta get down to the bus stop_

_Gotta catch my bus, I see my friend _

Sam threw an expectant look in Puck's direction. He could see the internal struggle that Puck was going through. For a heart pounding moment, Sam really thought that Puck wouldn't sing along. And then he saw the tiny quirk of his lips.

_Kickin' in the front seat_

_Sittin' in the back seat_

_Gotta make my mind up_

_Which seat can I take?_

The two teens turned towards one another with stupidly huge grins on their faces. Both were just incredibly grateful that there was no one else around to witness this moment.

_It's Friday, Friday_

_Gotta get down on Friday_

_Everybody's looking' forward to the weekend, weekend_

_Friday, Friday_

_Gettin' down on Friday_

_Everybody's lookin' forward to the weekend_

_Partyin', partyin' (yeah)_

_Partyin', partyin' (yeah)_

_Fun, fun, fun, fun_

_Lookin' forward to the weekend_

They both burst into laughter as soon as they were done with the song. Puck shook his head. "I can't believe that just happened. Wait a minute." He reached over and punched Sam in the arm.

"What the hell was that for?"

"You stole my part!"

Sam grinned. "It had to be done," he shrugged. "It was a necessary evil. I needed you to talk to me."

Puck gave him a look and nodded. "You win, Sam. What did you want to say?"

"Today is the second year anniversary of the day my parents died."

Puck's eyes widened and that was all the confirmation that Sam needed. "Oh shit, really? Today? You told me it was in January but you never said the date. Crap. Dude, I'm so sorry. I should've…"

"Guessed?" Sam asked, slightly amused. "It's my fault. I never told you the date and I assumed that you knew. That's my bad. I'm really sorry. I've been a major asshole all day."

"And I get why," Puck assured and absolved all in four little words. Did Sam ever mention his best friend was totally the shit? "Hey, Sam, it's cool. It's all forgotten."

Sam smiled. "I also need you to know that you're my best friend. Seriously, this year has only been as awesome as it's been because you're here. I'm really sorry that if I never told you that. I need you as much as you think you need me."

"Good to know," Puck murmured, his ears were bright red. Sam made a mental note to tell Puck how much he was appreciated. "So that explains why you've been terrifying the masses all day. But that doesn't add up to the comments about Blaine. What's your beef there?"

"I'm jealous," he admitted. "It just seems that lately every time I turn around, you're with Blaine. And I guess I let it build up and then it exploded."

Puck frowned before punching him on the arm again. "Don't make that face. Why the hell didn't you say something to me? I would've told you from the beginning what was going on if you'd just asked. I figured you didn't care. It wasn't some secret mission crap. All you have to do is ask me." Sam nodded.

"What's going on?"

"Remember last month's lovely intervention?'

Sam snorted. "Who could forget that hot mess?"

"So you know how you, Blaine and Quinn were outside the circle, right?"

Sam nodded. He was curious about that. Sam was outside the circle because he knew that Puck was feeling conflicted. He knew that Quinn was outside because she was redefining the words 'daddy issues'. It was Blaine's presence there that really confused him. Especially when Puck told him that they were out there because they understood.

"It's about Blaine and his dad?"

"Got it in one," Puck nodded. "Blaine's parents are divorced and he lives with his mom. Blaine has an older sister and a younger brother that live with their dad. They blame him for their parents' divorce because their dad keeps telling them that they got divorced because Blaine chose to be gay."

Sam winced. "That's fucked up."

"Yeah, it gets better. Blaine and his mom were doing alright until she lost her job last year. Now they're living off a really fixed income. The main reason he transferred here. And even with that expense gone, money has been tight. So his mom has to go to his dad to get money. And it's just been wearing on him. His dad is an asshole, plain and simple. And he makes Blaine feel like shit because he's gay."

"Not that I'm talking smack about your crisis management skills but why is Blaine going to you with this? Why not his actual boyfriend?"

"You remember the intervention, right?"

"Good point."

"Kurt is convinced that if they just sit down and talk it out with him, he'll change his evil gay hating ways and accept his son for who he is."

Sam raised an eyebrow. "Sometimes, I really want what Kurt is smoking."

"Pretty much. So that's the story. I've been talking with Blaine because I know what it's like to have a parent that hates you for no good reason. It helps just having someone to talk to that understands where you're coming from. That's all I've been doing. I'm not replacing you with Blaine."

Sam closed his eyes and sighed. Now he felt like an even bigger ass. He should've known it was something like this. He'd seen a change in Blaine in the last few months. He wasn't quite as peppy as he normally was. It must've been really hard for Blaine. He transferred from a school where he felt safe to be who he wanted to be to a school where being different got slushies thrown in your face. He had a crap relationship with his father and instead of a sympathetic ear, his boyfriend was trying to make him talk to his father and "work it out". He was isolated and out of place. It figured that Puck would be the one to pick up on that as he was in the same position not five months ago.

"I am so sorry," Sam said. "I should've just asked."

"It's ok," Puck shrugged. "It's your passive aggressiveness coming into play."

"You and Dean compare notes or something?"

"You want an honest answer to that?"

"Not really."

"Didn't think so."

Sam chuckled and leaned back in his chair. It felt comfortable again. Sure this was still a crappy day but maybe Dean was right. Maybe being around his friends (when he wasn't acting like an ass) was actually a good thing.

"So since none of us have ever seen the terrible side of Sammy, I'm guessing you were out last year on this day."

"Yeah," Sam grinned. "Dean took off work and I was out of school. We just stayed in and watched movies and talked. It was nice. Depressing but nice. This year though, between school and Dean being infected. I don't see that working out too well."

"We got the whole weekend. And you got me. We can sit up and watch movies. We can talk. I'd like to know more about your parents. I'm good at listening… to you. Mostly to you."

Sam laughed. "Thanks for that clarification."

"So we're good? Movies, junk food and sappy man crying time?"

Sam rolled his eyes but was internally happier than he'd been in awhile. No, he didn't have his parents. But he had his brothers. It was close enough. And then another thought struck him. He picked up his phone and sent a quick text message out.

"What was that?"

"This weekend should be about family."

"Ok?"

"So I asked if Blaine, Mike and Artie wanted to join us. If you're like my brother, then they're like really awesome and close cousins." Puck just shook his head. Sam paused. "So, dude, we're cool?"

Puck grinned lazily. "Always. It was kind of nice being the one that's not acting irrationally. It happens so rarely. It's nice not being the head case for once."

Sam reached over and slapped him on the back of the head. "You're not a head case. And don't worry I'm sure by the next big adventure, you'll be back to your dramatic ways."

"Whatever. So says the guy that had Mercedes, Tina and Kurt full on sprinting away from him."

"You saw that?"

"Oh yeah," Puck smirked. A content silence fell over the two friends. "For the record, I wasn't actually planning on moving my stuff."

"For the record, even if you were trying to replace me with Blaine, I'm glad I bothered. I'm glad you're my brother."

Puck sighed. "Look, it's only because of what today is that I'm allowing this to happen. Try this shit next week and I'm kicking you in the junk."

Sam didn't have a chance to ask him exactly what would get him kicked in the junk before Puck was crossing the small distance between them and hugging him. He was stunned for just a minute longer before he hugged back. They stayed like that for a few minutes before he pulled away.

"You tell anyone that happened and I will kill you, Sammy."

"Aw, this is such a Kodak moment!"

Puck groaned at the intrusion of Blaine, Mike and Artie. They were closely followed by Will. "Why doesn't anyone respect privacy around here? And seriously, Schue, why do you have like glass walls in your office? Doesn't that make getting your freak on with Ms. P really complicated?"

Will rolled his eyes, clearly way too used to the perverted comments coming from Puck's mouth. "I can see that my role in this has been fulfilled. You're talking to each other again. Now get out. All of you. Go home and try not to kill each other this weekend, please? We have Nationals coming up."

"It's nice that you have such selfless reasons for wanting us to live," Artie retorted.

"Oh, of course," Will grinned. "Bye guys. Have a great weekend."

"Fine, we're leaving," Puck said, pushing himself off his seat. He walked up to Blaine and nudged him on the shoulder. "You're down for this weekend, right?"

"Sure, but promise me there is not going to be anything that even looks like it could be a romantic comedy. I get it, we're gay but seriously? Gratuitous violence is fun."

Sam grinned. "I don't think Blaine is going to have any problems fitting in the family." Blaine tilted his head in Sam's direction in silent acknowledgment.

So at the end of the day, not everything was crap. He still had a girlfriend (who loved him), he still had two annoying, pain in the ass but worth every minute of the headaches they caused brothers, and he still had very awesome friends. Yeah, he was pretty sure that once this weekend was over there would be blood as far as the crap that came out of his mouth all day. But for right now, things were good. Except for one little pressing issue.

"Should we apologize?"

Puck paused in their walk to their lockers. "To who?"

"To Finn. You know, for like punching him in the face like all day."

Puck paused thoughtfully. After a minute he finally came to an answer he liked. "Nah, it's funnier this way. Now he'll just be on guard for the rest of the school year."

"That's pretty evil…. I like."

"I thought you would."

* * *

><p>*So that was it. Like I said, I don't know how I feel about this one. It's not my favorite. I feel like I was a little bit rusty and I was struggling with this chapter a bit. But I hope that it was at least mildly entertaining. And I also promise to try harder for next chapter. LOL. Also sorry to anyone who may have been upset by the slight (literal) Finn bashing. He's such an easy target. But I promise there will be no Finn bashing in the next chapter... I think. Hmmm. Ciao for now!<p> 


	6. Rejection, Closure and Acceptance

"The Totally Not Dorky but Awesome and Badass Bromantic Tales of the Puckerone and Trouty Mouth"

**Summary:** It was that time of year. April was a month that could either make or break the average high school senior. It was the time of year that colleges finally got around to letting their anxious applicants know their final decisions. And there were none more anxious than Puck and Sam. And there were none more devastated when that thin envelope from NYU came bearing Puck's name.

**Pairings:** Samtana, Puckleberry, Bartie, Klaine, Chang-squared and Wemma. Past Finnchel. Suck, Pucktana, Pezberry and Puck/Blaine (Plaine?) friendships

**Warnings:** No real spoilers involved in this story. It's obviously very AU as I totally made up Sam's family life. So nothing really spoilery in here. Be warned, this fic does deal with very sensitive issues (child abuse, domestic violence and homophobia). It's not terribly graphic but it is mentioned and discussed by several characters.

**Disclaimer:** I in no way shape or form own _Glee_ despite my continued efforts because if I did Chord Overstreet would still be on the show. I do own Sam's brother Dean. But even that shtick is borrowed from _Supernatural_… which I also don't own.

**Author's Note:** So we've come to the end of the road. Not really but I'm putting the complete label back on. I feel like this story has reached its climax as far as the plot is concerned. But that doesn't mean I'm done dabbling with the boys in this world. But for now, enjoy this chapter. More chatter from me in the end notes.

* * *

><p><strong>Rejection, Closure and Acceptance<strong>

It was that time of year. April was a month that could either make or break the average high school senior. It was the time of year that colleges finally got around to letting their anxious applicants know their final decisions. And there were none more anxious than the two seniors living in the Evans household. Puck heard Dean complaining to Will about them one random evening that week. And seriously when the hell did those two become buddies?

"They just come home and stalk the mailman," Dean whispered into the phone. "They're creeping me out. They don't eat. They hardly sleep. They just wait for him to show up. And then if he doesn't leave anything that looks like a college letter they attack."

Puck found that offensive on a lot of levels. First, they were sleeping. The mailman delivered between the hours of 4 PM and 6 PM. It wouldn't make any sense for them to stay up all night. Second, they didn't attack. They were just anxious to receive their mail from the lazy ass postal worker that usually delivered at the absolute last moment. There was nothing violent or malicious about their actions. The fact that the man jumps and screams every time they walk out the house to collect the mail just reflects his poor impulse control and…. Ok, so they attacked the mailman. Big deal! It was for a good cause.

"There he is," Sam whispered. Puck nodded his head, despite knowing that Sam couldn't see him as his head was facing forward. His eyes were locked on their target. The man moved slowly, glancing over his shoulder every so often as if he could feel the twin gazes on him. They watched as he shoved a few pieces of mail in the box before stopping completely. "What's he doing? That can't be it!"

"He has more in his bag and we're the second to last house on his route. Mrs. Goldsmith down the street doesn't get that much mail," Puck frowned, oblivious to Dean's rapid blinking in the background. "That fat bastard is holding out on us!"

The man hesitated, looking between his bag and the house behind him. Finally he reached a conclusion to his indecision. They watched as he marched up to the front door prompting both teens to scramble away from the living room. Dean rolled his eyes and opened the door for the harried postal officer. "Evening, Mr. Johnson. How can I help you tonight?" Puck peeked around the corner and didn't need to look to know that Sam was doing the same over his head.

"You can tell the boys congratulations," the man grinned, handing Dean a few envelopes. He winked in their direction causing them to duck around the corner once again. "I get it. They're not the only ones that are high alert."

Dean sighed in relief. "Thanks. You know for not suing us and stuff. Sorry that my little brother attacked with nun chucks."

"I did not!" Puck protested. "I just happened to have them in my hand!"

"Yeah! He just happened to have the nun chucks. Really that's prejudice. He's prejudiced against youth!" Sam added. Dean shook his head, thanked the mail man and sent him on his way. Once the door was closed, Puck felt it prudent to emerge from his hiding spot. Sam followed. "So what's that?"

Dean grinned and motioned for them both to sit down. "Ok, first off we have Ohio State for Noah Puckerman Evans. And then we have Ohio State for Samuel Evans." He threw the two envelopes at the respective teen and paused as they relished in their first acceptance letter. If Dean was one of those guardians, he would've had a camera. But he didn't think about it until he saw the first smiles spread across their faces. Now he really wished he had a damn camera. This was better than Christmas… and Hanukkah, although he still wasn't sure if they celebrated that right or not. Whatever, this moment was totally better than that.

"We got in!" Sam beamed at his best friend. Puck merely nodded. His entire focus was on the papers in front of him. This was proof. He wasn't a loser. He was going to college. He'd been accepted to a college!

"Alright, children, I got three more here. So let's move this along. Now, we also have University of Northwest Ohio, Kent State and oh… um, never mind. Just those."

Puck's eyes narrowed, instantly honing in on the hesitation in his voice. "What's that?"

"What's what?"

"Dean, you suck at this. What's the envelope you're trying to shove in between the couch cushions like we don't see you right there."

"Uh, that's nothing. It's not for you. I mean, it's nothing that you would be interested in. nothing important. Just forget it."

"It's NYU, isn't it?"

Dean sighed and removed the envelope from its horrible hiding place. Puck didn't point out that they could still see it there. He felt like he would just let Dean have some small amount of dignity. And then Dean tossed Sam the envelope.

"Oh…"

"Dude, this doesn't mean anything," Sam tried to assure him. "Maybe yours got lost in the mail."

"Yeah, or maybe Mr. Melton decided to hold out on yours because you attacked him with nun chucks last week."

"I didn't attack him," Puck protested with a small smile against his will. "I just happened to have them in my hands. I gestured towards the mailbox with them. That was not a threat against his person."

"And you said you don't have what it takes for law," Dean snorted, flopping down on the sofa with the two teens. "Look, don't stress this. It's not a rejection. They send letters to tell you if you don't get in. You haven't gotten one of those thin envelopes yet, so don't stress this."

Puck heard him. He really did. But it didn't matter how much time passed, he was always going to wonder if he was good enough. And if he didn't get into NYU, it would just be a confirmation that he was in fact not good enough. He also didn't want to think about what that would mean for him and the Evans brothers. Dean was already talking to his boss about the practicalities of opening up a private practice in New York. And Sam was going to NYU. He'd be an idiot to pass it up. So he was going to lose his brothers.

"I'm happy for you, Bieber," Puck forced a smile on his face. "Let's see the letter. I want to know what it looks like."

"You'll get one of your own to look over," Sam retorted with no real heat. But he handed the letter to Puck anyway.

Puck felt his eyes water as he looked over his best friend's acceptance letter. On the one hand, he was very proud of Sam. He knew how hard the blonde worked at his grades. His dyslexia made things difficult but Sam worked that much harder to make sure his junior and senior year grades were on point. So he was proud of him. But on the other hand, he was going to be left behind.

"Puck," Sam started before trailing off. "Just don't start obsessing over this."

"Me? Obsess?"

"Yes, you obsess," Sam repeated. "You obsess over everything. But you do it in these weird silently crazy ways. And then it all explodes into a fit of self-loathing and stupidity."

"So says the dude that spent an entire day alienating all his friends because he just couldn't tell us why he was really sad," Puck replied sharply. And then he winced as Dean smacked them both on the back of the head.

"You're both idiots," he stated, calmly. "You're both idiots and you both deserve each other. That's why this is going to work out. I don't think I can stand it you two got separated. So Puck, you don't obsess and worry about this one. Let it be. And Sammy, don't start your passive aggressive bullshit either."

"What did I do?"

"Ask Finn."

Sam grinned. "I can't. Every time he sees me, he runs and hides."

"You say this like you're actually proud of yourself." Sam and Puck exchanged amused glances. "Of course you are. Why do I even bother?" he shook his head. "Sam, don't forget to call Grandma and let her know you got into college. And Puck, call Rachel's dads."

"Yes, mom."

They winced in unison as he slapped them on the head again. But it was so worth it.

* * *

><p>Puck was not obsessed. He wasn't. He was merely… concerned. Why didn't he get a letter? At least a rejection letter. Just some sort of acknowledgement that they saw his application and made a decision. Instead he was stuck in this weird state of limbo. But he was not obsessed. No matter what Sam, Mike and Blaine said about him behind his back (and to his face). They didn't know what he was thinking…. At least he didn't think they did. Come to think of it, Blaine was super scarily accurate sometimes with what was going on in Puck's head. At first he thought it was because they both had serious daddy issues but now he wondered.<p>

"Puck, why are you looking at me like that?"

"Like what?"

"Like you think I know what you're thinking and you're pissed at me about it," Blaine replied, raising an eyebrow.

"Stay out of my head, Hogwarts!" Puck yelled.

"Do I even want to know what the hell you're on today?" Sam asked as he and Santana he walked into the choir room. "Why are you yelling at poor Blaine?"

"Oh, poor defenseless Blaine," Puck mocked. "You mean the same Blaine that totally kicked the captain of the hockey team in the junk this afternoon for no apparent reason?"

Santana's eyes lit up. "The same pendejo from yesterday?"

Blaine smirked. "Yeah."

"Of course," Sam shook his head. "Someone is displaying uncharacteristic bouts of violence. Santana must have had a hand in that one." Santana held up a certain finger in a not very nice gesture.

"He threatened my boy," Santana replied with a wicked smirk. "I told Blaine if he didn't handle it, I would." Puck raised an eyebrow. Yeah, it was probably best that Blaine kicked him in the junk. Santana had much more creative ways that wouldn't really end well… for the hockey jerk. It was definitely better this way.

The rest of the gleeks started to trickle in slowly afterwards. Puck tried, and failed, to be enthusiastic as they continued to share their college acceptances. Just as he assumed, Rachel, Mike and Brittany were all accepted to Julliard. Santana received her acceptance to NYU a few days after Sam. Quinn, Tina and Blaine also received acceptance letters to NYU. Kurt and Mercedes were accepted at the Fashion Institute. Artie got a free ride to Cooper Union. Hell, Puck heard that even Matt was accepted to Columbia. Everyone who mattered was going to be in New York, it seemed. Everyone except him.

Not that he was thinking about it or anything. Because he wasn't. He wasn't concerned at all. Not at all. And he was able to continue lying to himself until the moment he and Sam got home to find Dean trying desperately to shove a thin white envelope in his usual terrible hiding spot. That's the moment when Puck was able to admit that he was concerned, worried and at the moment, devastated. Maybe limbo was better. Because in limbo there was still hope. Now there was no hope. This was the reality. He was not going to New York.

"Shit, Puck, you're home!" Dean's voice got higher towards the end. "I thought you had practice this afternoon."

"We did," Sam said, watching Puck, who was in turn watching the envelope. "But it kind of dissolved into one big college fest and Mr. Schue just ended up dismissing us for the day. So we came home early to see if you wanted to go out for dinner tonight."

"Sure!" Dean said, with false cheer. "Just let me grab my wallet and…."

"That's from them, isn't it? From NYU?"

He didn't need to see the crestfallen look on Sam's face. He knew it was there. Just like he knew it was mirrored on his own. So that was it then. He was officially out of the running for New York. He didn't apply to Julliard because he honestly didn't think he was going to have a chance in hell. He wasn't sure why he thought he had a better chance at NYU.

"Hey," Dean said, placing a hand on his shoulder. "It's ok. We'll work it out somehow."

"Yeah," Puck replied, his voice sounded hollow even to his own ears. "Yeah, we'll work it out."

"Let's just grab some dinner and be calm. We all think better on full stomachs."

"It's a wonder we don't have some kind of eating disorder with the way you shove food on us, bro," Sam quipped, obviously trying to break the tension.

"I'm not entirely convinced you don't," Dean shot back. Puck wanted to laugh. He really did but to his horror an almost sob threatened to emerge. He swallowed against the lump in this throat.

"I'm going to change shirts," he muttered. "Kurt was trying to demonstrate the many ways Finn can reduce his B.O issues and decided to use me as a guinea pit. I smell like Old Spice and Axe body spray's bastard love child."

Sam sniffed and nodded his head sympathetically. "Go change. But hurry or I'm totally ordering pineapple for our pizza."

"You're disgusting."

"And you're wasting my time."

Puck was out the room before he noticed that both Dean and the letter were missing. He was also ignorant of the tea kettle's whistle from the kitchen. He pulled off his shirt as he walked into his room. His eyes flickered around the cluttered but (despite what Dean thought) organize room. It was his room in his home. It didn't occur to him earlier that he was going to lose this when they moved. But now he was really going to lose it. Mostly because it wasn't just the room that made it home. It was Dean and Sam. But now Dean and Sam were going to New York and he was going…. Where?"

Suddenly the room felt too small. He couldn't breathe in there. It felt like the time his mother made some dish with scallops. Turns out he was allergic to that too. She claimed she forgot he was allergic to shellfish. He claimed she forgot she was a Jew and not supposed to eat it in the first place. He remembered what it was like then. His breath was stuck in his chest. It felt like a band was tightening around his chest. It felt pretty much like now. He staggered over to his window and pulled it open hoping that the cool night air would help. It didn't. The room still felt too small and claustrophobic. He had to get away from it. He had to go…

* * *

><p>"Dude, where's Puck?"<p>

Sam looked up from his phone to face his older brother. "Most likely halfway to Rachel's house by now."

"I thought he was going to change his shirt."

Sam quirked an eyebrow. "You really believed that? I'm shocked he didn't just bolt out the front door instead of just climbing out his window."

Dean blinked. "And you know this how?"

"I heard him going down the trellis about ten minutes ago."

"And you didn't stop him because?"

"Because he's going to be a girl about this," Sam finally put his phone to the side. "And Rach is way better at handling that than we are."

Dean rolled his eyes. "Fine, let's go get the brat and then we'll go to dinner. I swear you two are starting to be a full time job. You want to piss off the world and he wants to run away from it."

"Why do I get dragged into his messes?"

"Do you really want an honest answer to that question?"

Sam huffed. "Not really. Stupid Puck." He shoved his phone into his pocket and followed Dean out the door. He failed to notice the white envelope sticking out of Dean's jacket pocket.

* * *

><p>Puck did not go to Rachel's house. For starters, he was pretty sure that Sam saw him run past the house when he left. He knew that they would be coming after him soon. And he knew that Sam would assume he went to Rachel. In all honesty, he was tempted to go to Rachel. She always had this way of talking to him that made everything better. But right now he didn't want to feel better. He wanted to think realistically. And Rachel wouldn't help him. She'd give him some big speech about love and fate and always being together. He just couldn't do optimism tonight and he refused to hurt her feelings because of that.<p>

He also couldn't go to Santana, his next go-to person. Ever since she and Sam confessed their undying love for one another and promised to be '2getha 4eva' the former Cheerio was actually smiling and cheery. Damn Sam and his vagina powers. Santana wouldn't give him any flowery statements about it all working out. But she would definitely snitch to Sam and Dean about where he was. And he just couldn't face them right now.

And this is how he found himself standing on the doorstep of his childhood home. He had no reason to come there since the funeral nearly two months ago. And he never wanted to go back. But he needed a dose of reality without the blanket support and security. Who better to give that to him than the woman who probably wouldn't know the definition of those words much less how to apply them to her son?

The door swung open but instead of the disapproving face of his mother, he came face to face with his little sister. Sarah blinked as she took in her big brother for the first time in months. Puck almost felt bad that they really didn't see each other as much but the words that came out of her mouth next completely erased that idea.

"What the hell are you doing here?"

"Yes, Sarah. It's great to see you too," he raised an eyebrow at the hostile attitude rolling off the twelve year old.

"Whatever. You act like you don't deserve that after what you did to our parents."

Puck felt the other brow rise at that. "What I did our parents? You're kidding, right? Ok, Sarah. I see you're listening to the 'Debra Puckerman' edit of events. I really don't have the time to correct that, so believe what you want. But ask yourself just one question."

Sarah's dark eyes, inherited from their mother, narrowed quizzically. "Why would the courts actually allow me to move out and make you live with Nana if I wasn't telling the truth?"

Puck knew his sister was smart. He knew that she'd be able to read between the lines… when she wanted to. Right now, she wanted to believe that she lived in a happy family that was only torn apart by her vicious, savage of a brother. That was fine. He'd allow that. But right now he had bigger problems to deal with and increasingly shorter time. He was pretty sure that by now Sam knew he didn't go to Rachel's house. It was only a matter of time before one of them figured out he was here.

Taking advantage of his sister's wordless surprise, Puck slipped past her and walked into the living room where he heard the television playing. His mother looked up from her dinner, clearly expecting Sarah. She couldn't school her features fast enough and Puck was able to see the surprise, the worry, the guilt and finally the usual blankness he associated her with.

"So they finally got tired of you?" she asked, casually. Her gaze drifted back to the television but he was familiar enough with her inattentiveness to know that she was subtly watching him out the corner of her eyes. He crossed his arms over his chest.

"Excuse me?"

"That's why you're here, right? To tell me that they finally kicked you out and you need a place to stay again."

Puck smirked. "You would love that, wouldn't you? To have me beg you to take me back. But thankfully, I get that I never have to stoop that low. Even if by some miracle Sam and Dean got sick of me and tossed me out, I finally get that I'm not alone. I don't need you. I never have and I never will."

She turned to face him completely. Her eyes darkened. "You came all the way over here to tell me that?"

"No, that was just an added bonus," he grinned, remembering Dean's words to him.

"Then why did you come here."

Puck nodded. "See the thing is, I was wandering around tonight and all I kept thinking was that I got rejected from NYU. I busted my ass these past two years. I pulled my grades up. I put more effort into my extracurricular activities then I ever have and I still failed. I was thinking that I proved you and the old man right. I'm worthless. I'm a failure."

His mother started to talk but closed her mouth. A minute part of him was hurt that she didn't even deny it. But that was the Puckerman in him talking. The Evans part of him just brushed aside her inability to be supportive because he got that already. He definitely didn't need it from her. He already had that in spades.

"Whatever," he shrugged. "The point of all this was that I felt that way for about ten whole minutes before I realized something."

"What was that?" she asked, quietly.

"I got into three Ohio schools. I'm still waiting to hear back from Rutgers. It doesn't matter that I didn't get into NYU this time. Because I'm going to go to either Ohio State or Rutgers or where the fuck ever and I'm going to work harder and I'm going to try again. I'm going to get in eventually. And I know that because I know I'm good enough. I'm more than you and that piece of shit father of mine ever thought I'd be."

"Don't disrespect the dead," Debra hissed.

"You're right," Puck apologized with mock sincerity. "I guess I should pay my respects to a man that made my life a living hell and continues to wreak havoc with my life even from beyond the grave. But you're right. He's dead. Let's just focus on you, mother dearest."

"Noah, I…"

"You what?" he cut her off. "You what? You tried? You tried to do what? You let him beat the crap out of me! You let him hurt me because it meant that he wasn't focused on you. And then when he left, you blamed me for it. You've treated me like I was a disgrace since birth. And I never understood why. I still don't. I can't ask him because he's dead. But I can ask you. Why, mom? What did I ever do to deserve any of the shit I took from both of you for seventeen years?"

Debra's mouth opened and closed several times but no words came out. He didn't think they would. He didn't think his mother would even have an answer. She probably didn't even know. He had a few ideas but none of them really mattered. Knowing why was not important to him anymore. He was over it.

"Don't waste your breath trying to figure it out," he shook his head. "Just know that I'm getting out of this town, one way or another. And when I do I'm never thinking about you again. You've really only been my mother in name but as of tonight that shit is done too. I'm done with you, Debra."

"Noah," she rose and took a step towards him. He took two steps back. "You're my son."

"Not anymore," he said, firmly. "One day, you'll understand how much you hurt me. You'll understand how much I hate you both. And you'll regret it. But it'll be too late. Because when I walk out that door, I'm never coming back. And I mean that."

"Noah?" he whirled around at the quiet voice by the doorway. His mother's eyes stared back at him from the face of his younger sister. He could see by the watery eyes that she heard everything. She most likely figured it out before but she was convinced by their conversation. His heart broke a little when he saw her but he knew she'd be alright. "What about me?"

"Give me your phone," he held his hand out and let her place her clearly brand new iPhone into his hand. He knew she didn't have a job which meant his mother bought it for her. He couldn't get money for lunch when he was her age but she got a phone. He pushed it to the side as he started to enter his contact information into the phone. "I'm giving you my new number, Sam's number and Dean's number. You already have Rachel and San still, right?"

"Yeah."

"If you ever need me, Sarah, I'm here. You're still my sister," he smiled softly at her. "I will always love you, squirt. I just can't pretend to be ok with this family anymore."

"You won't forget me when you get famous will you?" she asked, cocking her head to the side. He grinned.

"Nah, you're my brat sister," he pulled her into his arms and hugged her tightly. "Call me whenever you want. But promise me something."

"Ok?"

"You don't give that information to anyone," he looked her in the eyes. "Even mom. She doesn't need it."

Sarah's eyes flickered between her mother and brother before settling on Puck one again. "Ok. I promise."

He pressed a kiss against her forehead. "You're the best, squirt." He faced his mother once again and started to say something more. His mouth closed almost immediately. He didn't have anything further to say to her. He wasn't looking back on her or his father again. They were over and done with. He knew that he still had miles to go on the road to getting over his screwed up childhood but he was secure in the knowledge that he made a huge step forward this evening. In his case rejection led to the elusive closure he was chasing for months.

Puck gave Sarah one final hug and a promise to always be available if she really needed him. He didn't bother to direct a goodbye to his mother. He just walked to the front door and walked out with his head held high. That is until he damn near tripped over the sudden cluster of people gathered on the doorstep.

"Puck?"

He took a step back as he recognized the cluster as Dean, Sam, Santana, and Rachel. What. The. Hell?

"Uh, hi? Why are you all here?"

Dean rolled his eyes before punching him on the arm. "Why the hell do you think? We're here to find you, stupid!"

"Oh," he smiled a bit sheepishly. "Sorry. I didn't mean to worry you."

"Can I kick his ass now?" Santana asked. Her tone implied that she asked this question before. The overall looks on their faces was that she was going to get an answer she liked this time around.

"Look, I'm sorry. I just needed some time to think and get a little… I don't know clarity."

"And you got that here?" Sam asked, disdain clear in his tone. His eyes drifted towards his mother who was standing in the doorway now.

"Actually I got it on the way over here. You're right. It's not a big deal that I didn't get in this time. I thought about it and I'm going to go to Ohio State for the year. And then try again for NYU at the end of the year. I'll get in eventually."

Dean smiled. "That's very mature of you, Puck. What did you do with the real Puck?"

"You're so funny!" Puck retorted, smacking him against the chest.

"I'm glad you think so," Dean chuckled, reaching into his pocket. He pulled out what was rapidly becoming the bane of Puck's existence. "Since you already figured it out then you should have no problems facing this."

Puck accepted the envelope. True, he reached a conclusion that he'd be fine at Ohio State but he really didn't think he was ready to face this quite yet. Especially not with all of them watching him. But Dean was giving him that 'open it or face public humiliation worse than you can possibly imagine' look again. So Puck sucked it up and tore the envelope open.

"Out loud," Dean ordered. "Read it out loud."

"Really?" Sam protested, earning an elbow to his stomach.

"Dear Mr. Puckerman-Evans," Puck internally laughed at the soft grunt of displeasure his mother made at that. "It is our pleasure to invite you to be a part of the class of 2016 at New York University….."

"Wait, Noah," Rachel held up a hand. "That's not a rejection letter."

"That's an acceptance letter," Santana finished, her expression mixed with disbelief and joy. "Puck, you got in?"

He tuned them all out as his eyes scanned the letter quickly. It was an acceptance letter but it was very different from the one that Sam received. This one was more personal. They mentioned his personal statement which was about his childhood and trying to banish those demons. They talked about the performance CD he sent them. And they even mentioned that a scout happened to be in the Sectionals crowd and was very impressed with his song. They were offering him a scholarship. They simply wanted to offer him his acceptance letter while they waited for his scholarship and financial aid package to be created.

"I'm in," he whispered, clutching the paper tightly. "I'm actually in."

"Oh my god!" Sam yelled. "Dude, you're in!"

Puck laughed in disbelief and looked up to face his friends and brothers. "I'm going to New York!"

Rachel squealed before throwing herself into his arms. He picked her up so that her feet were off the ground and swung her around. She giggled in his embrace. He felt like dancing. She wasn't going to be leaving him. He was going spend every day hugging the hell out of this woman.

"Guess this isn't goodbye, huh?"

She leaned back to see his face but kept her arms locked tightly around his neck. "It was never going to be goodbye, Noah. Ever. I told you we're going to be together no matter what." Her eyes widened. "Oh, crap! Quick, Sam, give me your phone!"

Sam was clearly just as confused as the rest of them but he handed the phone over to the frantic Rachel. Puck watched as she dialed a number as familiar to him as his own. "Dad? It's me. Sam was wrong, Noah did get in. He's going to NYU. So just take that response to Ohio State and shred it, ok?" Puck heard Leroy's congratulations before he disconnected. Rachel tossed the phone back to Sam.

"Uh, babe, what the hell was that about?"

"Oh, well, when Sam told me you didn't get in, I started worrying about you. I know how you are, Noah. You probably would've broken up with me because you didn't want to get in the way of my dreams or something like that."

Puck shrugged. The girl really did know him. There was no point in denying it. He probably would've gotten around to that before they started school in the fall. Taking his silence correctly as agreement, Rachel continued.

"So I started thinking about the long distance thing and how that wouldn't work. It wouldn't work with all of us in New York and you alone here in Ohio. So I decided to defer Julliard for a year and go to Ohio State with you."

Puck's eyes widened. "Woman, are you crazy? New York has been the only thing you could talk about since we were kids! And you're willing to put that off to be with me? Whatever happened to never giving up your dreams for some stupid boy?"

"I'm not giving up on my dreams for a stupid boy. You're not a stupid boy. And I'm not giving them up. Just putting them on hold for a moment."

"But it's Broadway! It's been your dream since you could talk!" Puck protested. He didn't understand why she would even think about doing something like this. He'd known Rachel almost all his life. He knew this girl inside and out. And he knew that she eats sleeps and breaths Broadway. He didn't understand why she would ever even think about postponing it for… him.

"And you've been my reality since I realized that boys were cute," Rachel grinned. "Noah, I'm not giving up on Broadway. It's been there since I was born and it'll be there long after we're gone. If being near Broadway meant not having you, then I didn't want Broadway. If it ever comes down to you versus Broadway, it will always be you, Noah."

"I would never ask you to choose between me and Broadway."

"I know," she kissed him softly. "That's why I'll always pick you."

Puck smiled. He didn't really understand it but maybe that was ok. Maybe he could just be ok with knowing that she loved him enough to 'postpone' her dreams to be with him. He was ok with it. More than ok with it really because he was going to New York. Rachel wouldn't have to give up her dreams and he wouldn't have to give up his brothers. And they would still be together. It was almost perfect.

"I love you, Rachel."

"I love you too, Noah."

"And we love both of you," Santana said, throwing her arms around the couple. "But I'm starving. So get your fine Jewish asses in gear."

"What she said," Sam added, giving his girlfriend a soft look. Puck wanted to mock them but seeing as how he was still pretty much holding Rachel up in the air, he definitely wasn't one to talk. Instead he lowered his very awesome, very amazing girlfriend to the ground and nodded.

"Let's roll."

"Yes! I want pizza!" Santana cheered as they turned to walk down the driveway. "I want an extra large pie with like everything on it."

"Who exactly is paying for this again?" Sam whispered to Puck.

"Dean," Puck replied with a smirk.

"Oh, great! One everything pizza coming right up."

Puck smiled at his family and started to follow Santana. That's when he realized his girlfriend wasn't moving with him. Instead she was staring at the woman who'd gone unnoticed in all of the celebration. He forgot his mother was at the door. And apparently she was still there. That was interesting. He started to pull Rachel away when she started talking.

"Mrs. Puckerman, I'd like to start this off by saying thank you for all the times you were there for me and my fathers when I was growing up. You were one of the few women at the Temple who accepted our unique family dynamics and I greatly appreciate it. That being said let me just state that I abhor the way you've treated your son. Noah is amazing. And for some reason, you're either too blind or too stupid to see that. But you will soon. Mark my words. Your son is going to be huge."

Puck felt his heart skip a few beats at his girlfriend's warm endorsement. He knew that Rachel loved him and she believed in him. But to hear her saying it without provocation and with no hesitation created a warm fuzzy feeling in his stomach.

"And as you've probably heard, I love your son. And I'm going to love him for as long as I live. And years from now after we're both moderately successful and financially stable, we're going to get married and we're going to have kids. Yes, kids plural. And they're going to have Noah's eyes and smile. They're going to be incredible. And you'll never know them. Because I will never allow you to poison them with the same hatred and soul crushing bitterness you infected your son with. They will never doubt how amazing they are because they will never know you."

She fixed the woman with a final glare before tugging on Puck's hand to lead him away. Puck met her eyes one last time. "Goodbye, mom." Debra never answered him. She merely closed the door. He felt Rachel and Sam guiding him away. But he wasn't upset this time. He still didn't know why his parents hated him but he also found that he no longer cared. He had a family that cared about him. To hell with Debra and Elijah Puckerman.

"So you get the closure you been looking for?" Dean asked, slinging an arm around Puck's shoulders. Rachel released his hand in favor of launching herself onto Santana's back. Santana staggered under the sudden weight for a moment but was quickly steadied by an amused Sam and racing down the sidewalk with a giggling Rachel holding on. Sam was practically jogging to keep up with them in case they fell. Puck snorted as they did fall. On top of Sam.

"Yeah, I got what I needed," Puck said, answering Dean's question. "Also thanks, Dean."

"For what?"

"For opening the letter for me."

"I have no idea what you're talking about." Puck just looked at him out the corner of his eye. The corners of the older Evans' brother mouth twitched. "How'd you even know?"

"There was no way you would've made me open that in front of everyone unless you were sure that it wasn't bad news. Plus you're the big brother. That's what you do."

"You know me so well."

"We are family," Puck shrugged.

"Damn right," Dean paused as he looked at the giggling tangle of limbs still lying on the grass. "Either you all failed to master gravity as children or Santana's finally enacted her plot to lure you all into an orgy."

"Hey, Satan, save that orgy shit for New York. You know how expensive shit is there. We're going to need cheap sources of fun." Puck laughingly dodged the blow aimed for his head and checked his phone which was buzzing in his pocket. He smiled soft at the text from his sister, congratulating him on being accepted to school. He glanced back at the house and found her standing at the start of the driveway.

"Hey, squirt. You want pizza?" he asked, holding his hand out to her. She rushed forward to wrap her hands around his arm.

"Duh, Noah. Mom said I could go if you'll let me… you know... if you want me."

"Hey," he cut her off. "I want you to go, ok?" she beamed up at him and he found himself grinning stupidly back at her.

In the back of his mind he wondered if this was some kind of plot by his mother to try and lure him back into her web of soul crushing and madness. But at the moment, he really didn't care. He was going to celebrate his bright new future with his family of choice. The hell with everything else.

* * *

><p>*So I hope you all enjoyed. So more on the babble I started in the first author's note. Even though I'm marking this as complete again, I'm definitely not done writing with these guys. I have some more ideas for stories but I'm not sure they'll fit in chronological order. So there will be more random stories popping. I'll call them interludes when they're shorter. I might write about the boys' graduation but that remains to be seen. So hope you enjoyed! Ciao for now.<p>

**Also the bit about the thin envelope comes from real life experience. One of the schools I was so sure that I was getting into sent me a thin envelope. I had the most epic of meltdowns in the lobby of my apartment building until my mom just opened it. They really wrote me a letter to tell me that they were giving me a scholarship and that my acceptance package was coming along later. So I made Puck feel my pain (read shame, lol).


	7. Adventures in Parenting

"The Totally Not Dorky but Awesome and Badass Bromantic Tales of the Puckerone and Trouty Mouth"

**Summary:** Dean Evans learned early in life that you just had to roll with life threw at you because sometimes it ended up being pretty awesome. Like when he got two little brothers for the price of one. Or the time his ex-girlfriend showed up on his doorstep and told him that she was getting married, moving to India and they had a daughter.

**Pairings:** Samtana, Puckleberry, Bartie, Klaine, Chang-squared and Wemma. Past Finnchel. Suck, Pucktana, Pezberry and Puck/Blaine (Plaine?) friendships

**Warnings:** No real spoilers involved in this story. It's obviously very AU as I totally made up Sam's family life. So nothing really spoilery in here. Be warned, this fic does deal with sensitive issues (child abuse, domestic violence and homophobia). It's not terribly graphic but it is mentioned and discussed by several characters.

**Disclaimer:** I in no way shape or form own _Glee_ despite my continued efforts because if I did Chord Overstreet would still be on the show. I do own Sam's brother Dean. But even that shtick is borrowed from _Supernatural_… which I also don't own.

**Author's Note:** So I know I said that this story was over… I kind of lied... a little. I was all ready to just focus on writing smaller one shots but this idea popped up and wouldn't leave me alone. So here we go. It's told from a different POV. For everyone that liked Dean, you now get to know what he's thinking about while Puck and Sam are off doing… well what Puck and Sam do.

* * *

><p>Adventures in Parenting<p>

Dean Evans learned pretty early that you just had to roll with what life threw at you because sometimes it ended up being pretty awesome. Like when his parents announced on his birthday that they had a little too much fun celebrating their fifteenth wedding anniversary and now he was getting a little brother. There was going to be a fourteen year age difference between him and the unborn runt but from the moment his mother placed the squirming, red faced, green eyed baby in his arms, Dean knew he'd be the best damn brother he could. And when their parents died not fifteen years later, he didn't hesitate to save his baby brother from living with their grandmother. Even when the decision cost him the woman he thought he was going to marry. He never once regretted it either. Not even when Sam brought home a stray that somehow was even more broken than them. Just as he did with Sam, Dean took one look at Puck and just knew. He never regretted that either. Not even when the two unholy terrors insisted on raising all sorts of hell just because they could.

"So what happened this time?" Dean asked through clenched teeth. His two troublesome charges sank lower in their seats at the irritation and annoyance dripping from his voice. But Dean noticed they both were wearing matching smirks. Jerks.

"It's really not their faults this time," Will attempted to defend them. Dean glared at the slightly older man, showing him exactly what he thought about that effort. "Well, not entirely at any rate. They were provoked."

"Oh really?" Dean craned his head to face the brats. "Make it good or you're grounded until we move and I'm buying you all pink for your dorm."

"Evil," Sam hissed and turned to Puck. Dean had to laugh at the irony of that. No matter what chaos and madness they created, Sam almost always turned to Puck to get them out of it. Even though it was usually Puck that convinced him to create said chaotic and mad situation. His kid brothers were amusing little oddballs.

"It was their fault," Puck muttered. "Those little cowardly bitches on the hockey team have been riding me and Sammy's asses for the past few weeks. But because they're coward ass bitches they decided to go after Rachel to get to me. They threw slushies at her. Multiple slushies! And it was cherry. Rachel hates cherry!"

Dean raised an eyebrow. He heard about the infamous slushy tossing but he thought that stupid pastime stopped. Apparently he was wrong. Rachel chose this moment to arrive in Will's office. She was accompanied by an incensed Santana. Dean felt his own ire rising when he saw the still slightly red Rachel.

Puck was on his feet and ushering her to his former seat in a flash. Santana, per the usual, threw social propriety out the window and draped herself across Sam's lap. Dean was amused. But then he was back to being pissed because he liked Rachel. He didn't like seeing her covered in a sticky, too sweet sugar loaded beverage. Especially since it made her pout. He went through life thinking he was invincible. Until he met these guys. Between Sam's hunched over emo thing, Puck's puppy dog eyes and Rachel's pout, Dean had little defenses against the insanity they brought with them. He was going to be screwed when Puck and Rachel started having kids.

"Personally, I feel like Sam and Puck shouldn't be in trouble," Santana spoke up next. "They really didn't do anything wrong, per say."

"They instigated a riot," Will replied, incredulously.

"It was a little one," Santana held up a tiny space between her forefinger and her thumb. "A very little riot. No one was hurt…. Much."

Dean was torn between being proud of the brats for actually having enough intelligence and savvy to start a riot and being ashamed of the fact there weren't more causalities. Because did he mention that he really liked Rachel?

"So what's the story, Will? Figgins wants to suspend them or something?"

Will grinned. "Surprisingly, no. He's not recommending any real punishment. It's pretty much the end of the school year. He just called you as a formality. Really, I think that he's more impressed that Sam and Puck managed to do in the span of an hour what we've been trying to do for almost three years now."

"And that is?"

"Get the football team and the glee club to work together for a common goal without being forced to do so. Although it would've gone over better if the goal they chose to work for wasn't beating the crap out the hockey team."

Puck shrugged. "Rachel is worth it."

"That's so sweet, Noah," Rachel beamed as if she actually believed that was sweet and not some sign of mental imbalance in her boyfriend. Then again, Rachel was also the same person who thought that sending a tiny exchange student to a crack house was a good idea. So maybe he shouldn't use her a as guide for Puck's moral compass. He was really going to have to keep an eye on those two in New York. There were way more crack houses in the city.

"So we're not in trouble, right?" Sam asked, cautiously. "No one really got hurt. Not even that stupid prick, Jeremy."

"I thought his name was Jonah," Puck said absently.

"Wasn't it Michel?"

"No, it was Austin," Rachel finally corrected them all. They all nodded in acceptance. And there was the real reason behind the riot. None of them even knew which one of the hockey team they were attacking. So they just attacked them all. Geniuses, his brothers. Pure genius.

"Dean?" Puck asked, the damn eyes already working.

"Stop that! I told you those things freak me out. You and Sammy have this way of getting into my soul. It's not right," Dean muttered. "Look if Figgins isn't suspending you then I guess you're not in trouble at home either. And since I totally understand the reason, I guess I won't buy you an entire pink room. But you're both getting pink toothbrushes."

Puck looked at Sam, who shrugged. "Ok, we accept your terms."

Dean started to point out that they didn't really have a choice but chose to let the issue go. They were insane and sometimes talking to them was a useless venture. He could see that today would be one of those times. Besides, he had a useless venture of his own making to attend to that evening. He'd worry about them later. Thankfully, they were unlikely to encounter any small third world countries in the foreseeable future. He'd definitely get to the lecture before then. Although it would be awesome to be the dictators of their own countries.

* * *

><p>"So why are you in a mood?"<p>

Dean glanced up from the book he was attempting to read. Seeing as he hadn't made it past the first line, he knew the attempt was futile and he knew that Sam and Puck would figure that out. But he definitely wasn't going to give in that easily. He was the oldest after all. He had to set an example.

"You mean why am I in a mood besides the fact that you and the other one decided to start a riot at your high school this morning?"

"It was only a little one!" Sam protested from the kitchen. "It was more like an uprising." He stuck his head around the wall and addressed Puck. "And he's really only in a mood because _Cassie_ is coming over."

Dean groaned. Of course, Sam would know about that. How he knew was beyond Dean, but his little brother knew. And his little brother did not approve. This night was not going to end well. He turned to Puck who was sitting with his head tilted to the side. He looked like a curious puppy. Dean repressed the urge to pat him on the head. He only looked like a puppy sometimes. He bit like a rabid dog all the time.

"I'm lost. Who's Cassie?"

"Cassie is the bitch that totally screwed Dean over because he wanted to take me after our parents died," Sam answered, walking into the living room and flopping down on the sofa besides his best friend. He wordlessly passed him a soda that Dean knew Puck did not ask for but apparently wanted. Those two were weird. "She's coming here tonight because she apparently got something to tell Dean or some crap like that."

"Thank you, Sammy. That just about summed up a really traumatic experience in my life into a two second nutshell."

"I try."

"What do you think she wants?" Puck asked, looking mildly sympathetic. Dean vowed to increase his allowance.

"Who cares?" Sam frowned. "Why the hell is she coming back now?" Dean was so lowering the brat's allowance. Right after he dealt with the ringing doorbell.

He experienced a moment of sheer panic when he heard the ringing. What did she want? Did she want to get back together? Did he want that? He was happy with his life at the moment and he didn't know if she would fit into the life that he'd created. Would she even want to fit in? Did he want her to fit in?"

"Uh, Dean? You know Sam went to answer the door, right?"

"Oh, shit," Dean let out a growl and raced towards the front door. The little bastard he sometimes referred to his as his brother was halfway there when Dean tackled him. He didn't bother to check if he was ok as he pulled open the door to reveal Cassie. She was still as beautiful as he remembered. With her dark skin, deep brown eyes and…. Tiny child attached to her hip. "Uh, hi?"

"Dean," she smiled softly. "It's good to see you."

"You too, Cass. I see you brought a little friend."

"Yeah, I did. You see the thing is that…." Cassie chewed on her lip and glanced down at the little girl whose head was resting against Cassie's shoulder. Slowly, the child lifted her head to look at Dean and the recently recovered Sam. Dean literally gasped when a pair of very familiar eyes blinked at him from behind a curtain of light brown ringlets. He knew those eyes. They were the same shade of green as his mother and brother. "Dean, this is Charlotte… your daughter."

"Where's Maury when you need him?"

* * *

><p>"How long has he been sitting here again?"<p>

"About ten minutes."

"Should we do something?"

"I called Mr. Schue. He said he could be over in like a half an hour. Maybe he knows what to do. Maybe it's like an old people thing."

"I think it's a surprise child kind of thing. That does tend to fuck with a person."

"We're just assuming Cassie's telling the truth. How do we even know for sure?"

"Do you not look in a mirror?" Puck asked, skeptically. "I mean if you don't, that does explain a lot." Dean heard him grunt, implying that Sam smacked him. He'd let that go this time. "Anyway, asshole. The kid has your eyes. And your mom's eyes too."

"Shit. I was kind of hoping no else saw that."

"You're not too bright."

"Your face is not too bright!"

Dean rolled his eyes at the weak retort. "Neither of you is that bright," he spoke finally, bringing their exchange to an end. "Still don't know why your girlfriend's put up with either one of you."

"Santana loves me."

"Yeah, we know," Puck said, exasperatedly. "You only tell us like everyday."

"Whatever. This coming from the same guy that feels the need to comment on every one of Rachel's statuses to tell her how much you heart her."

Dean felt it necessary to end the conversation now. Either Sam would start whining about his awesome epic love with Santana or Puck would start bitching and go off to write about a song about Rachel. Either way, Dean's fragile sanity couldn't take much more tonight. He probably could be handling this situation better but screw it. He was completely out of his element right now. Because seriously? What. The. Fuck? He has a daughter!

"You feel better now?" Sam asked.

"Yeah, actually I do. Is she still here?"

"In the living room. After you blanked out on us, we sent her and our definitely maybe niece in there. Some dude showed up about five minutes ago. They're all in there now. And we're in here," Puck finished with a small shrug. "You sure you're ok?"

"No," Dean gave a strangled laugh. "But I know how to get there." He pushed himself up away from the table where Sam and Puck left him and marched into the living room. Cassie looked up from the intense, whispered conversation she was having with the man that Puck said joined her. "Cassie, please explain to me what the hell you mean by she's my daughter?"

"I mean she's your daughter."

"You keep saying that but the funny thing is we broke up two years ago. You'd think at some point in the past two years, you'd call a guy and let him know that he has a kid!"

Cassie had the nerve to look wounded. "It wasn't like that, Dean." She sighed. "Steve, can you take Charlotte to the car, please?"

The man named Steve looked hesitantly between Cassie, Dean and the two teens hovering nervously in the background. Finally, he nodded and scooped the sleeping child into his arms. Dean wanted to protest him taking her away but he realized it made sense. He really didn't want his child to remember her first meeting with her father as him cursing out her mother.

"Ok, she's gone. So explain."

"I found out that I was pregnant about two weeks after we ended things. We didn't end in on the greatest of terms, Dean. You weren't exactly in a good place."

"My parents died!" Dean shouted incredulously. "My parents were dead. My fifteen year old brother was this close to having to live with my bordering on senile grandmother and my grown ass kleptomaniac cousin unless I stepped in to raise him. So yeah, I wasn't in the best of places. So sorry for that."

Cassie crossed her arms over her chest. "You're acting like it was so easy for me. It was hard for me too, Dean. I didn't want to end things like that."

"But you did," Dean hissed. "You chose to walk away because you didn't want to play mommy to an emotionally damaged teenager."

"She said that?" Puck questioned. Sam grunted and muttered something highly insulting about Cassie. Dean was so increasing that kid's allowance.

"Dean, I just didn't want to involve you in Charlotte's life when I found out. I knew that things were overwhelming enough with you having to raise Sam. I didn't want to add another burden on your plate. Plus you were just finishing up your degree."

"Stop making excuses!" Dean snapped. "You made a decision on your own based off facts that you probably made up as well. I would've been there for my daughter. I would've been there for you too. You're the one that chose to walk away from me and keep my daughter away from me. Don't sit there and try to play the victim now."

Cassie's jaw clenched but it was obvious that she had no response to that. Not that Dean expected her to. Of all the reasons she wanted to see him tonight this was nowhere on his radar. And speaking of why she came tonight…

"Why now? Why wait two years to suddenly tell me the truth?"

"I'm getting married."

"So?"

She looked mildly hurt that he wasn't upset she was getting married but seriously? He could care less. He was over her and had been for awhile. He was not about to shed tears over the fact that she was getting married. Not when she dumped the bombshell that he was an actual father instead of a pseudo father figure.

"So, Steve just accepted a job in India. We'll be moving before the wedding. The thing is the job requires us to move around a lot and that's not exactly the best way to raise a child."

Dean's widened as he caught the implications of what she was saying. "You're dumping her on me."

"She's your daughter!"

"That I just found out about literally twenty minutes ago! And now you're telling me that you want me to actually raise her!"

"It's just for a year." Dean laughed incredulously. This woman had to be out of her damn mind. He idly wondered if she was this crazy when they were dating and he just failed to notice it because she was hot.

"Cassie….. You have no idea what the hell you're asking me. Do you know the responsibilities I have on my plate right now?"

Cassie rolled her eyes. "Oh, please. Let me guess, raising your daughter is going to impose on your swinging single bachelor lifestyle. Remember, I know you before you so graciously swooped in to take in your little brother. You never did anything for anyone unless there was something in it for you. So what? You want money to raise Charlotte. That's what you got for raising Sam, right?"

Dean's fists clenched at his side. He felt his mind go blank for a moment before a hand on his shoulder brought him back to his right mind. He glanced up expecting to see either Puck or Sam but instead found Will. He glanced at the clock. He really did mean a half an hour or less.

"When did you get here?"

"Right around the wedding announcement," Will grinned. "The boys filled me in on the basics before they left."

Dean raised an eyebrow. "They left?"

"Don't worry about them," Will patted him on the shoulder. "I heard Sam calling Mike on the way out. So they're not going too far." Dean nodded. He didn't feel comfortable with them not being where he could see them at the moment but he supposed that they really didn't need to be there for this. He ran a hand over his face in order to compose himself.

"Ok, Cassie, here's the deal. You said that you knew me. And that's pretty much right. You knew me. You know nothing about me now. And I thought I knew you, but clearly I don't anymore. Because the Cassie I knew would never abandon her daughter. And don't give me that shit about accepting a job and moving around. The point of it all is that you're giving her up."

"So what's changed about you, Dean? Huh? Because from the looks of it, nothing has!"

"That would be where you're wrong. I finished my degree. I'm opening my own practice in Brooklyn in August. I've already got a few clients lined up. And I'm pretty much the foster father to a kid that has more talent in his little finger than most of the so called pop stars have in their entire bodies. As for Sam, that kid is going to do amazing things in whatever he decides to do because he's the shit. And I got nothing for making the decision to raise him except for the immense pride in knowing that I helped him get to where he is."

Cassie swallowed and looked to the side. "So are you going to take her or not?"

"I'm taking her," he answered, without real awareness that he was answering. "But it's not for a year. If you do this. If you marry some guy and move to India and give your child up, then it's for good. You're not playing the in and out game with our child, Cass. Remember I know how you are. You walk away from her tonight, that's it."

"You can't do that."

"I can't? Watch me. And also understand that if you walk out that door now with her and try and keep her from again, I'll have your ass in court so fast."

Cassie's eyes filled with tears but he was not about fall for that one. "Why didn't you fight this hard for me? You let me walk away."

"I shouldn't even dignify that one with a response but you know what I am. You left me when I needed you the most. That's why I didn't fight for you. Because honestly you weren't worth fighting for then and after realizing that you're dumping the child you kept from me on me after two years, I know that you aren't worth it now."

"Well, it seems that I have some things to talk to Steve about. I'll be back in the morning."

"Whatever, Cassie. Whatever. You know where the door is. See your way out."

His ex love of his life stormed out the room without another word. Dean slumped down on the armchair the second she was out the room. Will sat down on the sofa across from him.

"That was intense."

"I can't believe they actually called you over here for this."

Will snorted. "According to Sam, he didn't think you had any other 'old people' that you could talk to about this. So he called me to help out."

Dean lifted his head and grinned. "Is it just me or is he getting a lot more sarcastic since he started dating Santana and living with Puck?"

"Yeah, they definitely have that effect on him," Will laughed. "So how are you dealing with all of this?"

"I have no idea. I have a kid!"

"Technically, you already have a kid. Two kids, in case you forgot."

"Sammy and Puck? They hardly need me. Sam's been self reliant since he came out the womb. Kid is smart as hell. Just hides behind that quiet, shy front of his. And Puck is a survivor. He definitely doesn't need me like this kid is going to need me. She's barely two!"

"I'm going to tell you something. Understand I'm not telling you this as their teacher but as your friend."

"Ok," Dean said, warily.

"I fucked up." Will grinned at the surprise written on Dean's face. "Yeah, I fucked up big time. I didn't know Sam before your parents died. So I really don't know what he was like. But I did know Puck before he moved in with you and Sam. And I know that the kid that got accepted to NYU with a scholarship is not the same kid before you took him in."

"He hasn't changed that much… has he?"

"It's not so much that he's changed personality wise. He hasn't. He still provocative, stubborn and at times completely inappropriate. But he also smiles now. Real smiles, not those smirks he used to throw around. He isn't as defensive. And he's proud of what he's accomplished with his music. He's aware of the supports he has around him. He talks more about what's going on with him instead acting out on impulses. He actually goes to therapy with Emma and enjoys it. None of us saw what was going on with him. None of us saw that he was screaming for help. But Sam did, because you helped him to be sensitive to others around him. And then you did what a lot of people wouldn't do."

"What was that?"

"You gave Puck a home. You didn't just let him move in. You went to bat for the kid and he appreciates it. He had a messed up concept of family in his mind. You took him in and made him see that family doesn't always mean pain and sadness. It can also be a support. You changed that kid in good ways. That's something to be proud of."

Dean smiled softly. Will did have a point. Puck was a wreck when he first moved in. It took a lot of time and a lot of patience to convince him that they weren't going to kick him out with every mistake. In the beginning, Puck didn't even unpack his bag. He was that convinced that they were going to throw him out. Now he walked in the house and threw his bag, jacket and various other articles of clothing around without a care in the world. And Dean knew for a fact that he was no longer having the nightmares that plagued him since the day he met him. The kid had come a long way… and he played a part in that.

"Maybe… I don't completely suck at this parenting thing."

"You don't. It's going to be difficult parenting a little girl but I think you've done pretty well so far with the two teenage boys. And you know they'll help you."

"Yeah, whenever they decide to come back." Almost as if summoned, the front door opened and the sounds of teenage bickering could be heard.

"You're carrying it wrong."

"How the hell does someone carry something like this wrong, Sam?"

"Why are you actually questioning him? He's been in a pissy mood since our failed uprising."

"This is why I said we should've got the nerds involved. Nerds can follow directions. Jocks just spread pain…." Sam trailed off as they passed through the den where Dean and Will were sitting. "And oh look, Mr. Schue is here."

"We did call him," Puck retorted.

"Mr. Schue is hanging out at your house," the third voice in all the madness added. Mike stepped beside Puck and Sam with a look of confusion on his face. "But doesn't that make it difficult to plan like all the dumb shit you two pull off?"

Sam snorted. "You forgot who Puck is, huh? Like 80% of the things we do are based on his lack of impulse control."

"So this morning…."

"Yeah, that was poor impulse control based on Sam wondering what would happen if we started a riot in school. The answer was nothing."

Like Dean said, his kid brothers were amusing little oddballs and he was grateful that neither of them had political ambitions. "So where did you two go anyway?"

"I'm sure we missed the whole drama filled showdown but I get the feeling that Cassie was here to shuck her responsibilities as a mother," Sam shrugged. "So we thought you might need some supplies."

"And Mike's older sister has a lot of stuff lying around since her kid is like eight now. So we called and asked if we could use some of it for Charlie."

"Charlie?" Dean questioned.

"Your daughter," Sam replied, as if Dean was the slow one here. "You're going to need to be more on point if you're planning on being a somewhat effective father."

Dean started to reply but the words died on his lips. He got it. They were both telling him that they were supporting him. Though he missed his parents every day, he was grateful for the opportunity to raise Sam and Puck. Because they made life kind of fun. You know, for a pair of twerps.

"So you two brain trusts actually thought up a plan?"

"Yeah, I figure for now we can move Charlie's crib in your room. She's tiny and aren't you supposed to watch them closer when they're tiny?" Sam asked, looking confused. Dean nodded. "Oh, cool. So yeah, we'll move the crib in your room. And then I guess me and Puck can just share a room in the apartment when we move. I mean we're living in the dorms. It's not like we're going to need separate bedrooms."

"But you snore," Puck frowned.

"This wasn't a problem for you when you volunteered to share a dorm room with him," Mike said, blinking rapidly. "But it's a problem for you when you hear you have to share a room with him for a few months at a time."

"Yes."

Dean let the conversation fade into the background. Slightly behind the boys he could make out the crib that would soon be set up in his room. That was going to be his daughter's crib. He didn't try to stop the smile that was blossoming across his face. His daughter. He only saw her for a few minutes but he was already completely in love with her. He was going to kick ass with this parenting thing. He already did. Sometimes life threw some seriously screwed up curve balls but Dean learned how to roll with them because sometimes they turned out good.

"Hey, brats. You know I love you guys, right?"

They paused in their conversation to give him soft smiles before scowling in unison.

"He's had a daughter for an hour and he's already turning into a girl."

"If he tries to hug me, I reserve the right to punch people tomorrow."

Assholes.

* * *

><p>*Well, I hope you enjoyed. Yes, I know it's cliché to throw a kid into the mix but for some reason the idea of the three of them trying to raise a little girl wouldn't leave me alone. Now I'm off to write the next chapter of <em>Broken<em> and the actual chapter of this story I planned on writing. Ciao for now!


	8. Moments A to C

"The Totally Not Dorky but Awesome and Badass Bromantic Tales of the Puckerone and Trouty Mouth"

**Summary:** Life is simply a series of interconnected moments that guide us along. Here are some of the moments in the collective lives of the Evans family.

**Pairings:** Samtana, Puckleberry, Bartie, Klaine, Chang-squared and Wemma. Past Finnchel. Suck, Pucktana, Pezberry and Puck/Blaine (Plaine?) friendships

**Warnings:** No real spoilers involved in this story. It's obviously very AU as I totally made up Sam's family life. So nothing really spoilery in here. Be warned, this fic does deal with sensitive issues (child abuse, domestic violence and homophobia). It's not terribly graphic but it is mentioned and discussed by several characters.

**Disclaimer:** I in no way shape or form own _Glee_ despite my continued efforts because if I did Chord Overstreet would still be on the show. I do own Sam's brother Dean. But even that shtick is borrowed from _Supernatural_… which I also don't own.

**Author's Note:** I promised I would keep this going and I meant it. Here are some of the drabbles/interludes that I've been compiling. I gave myself a challenge and that was to write a series of moments A-Z. I've come up with the majority of the words that will spawn these moments but I haven't written them all. So I figured I'd post what I have now. Some of these are set in the future and some are set in the present. I'll try and mark them accordingly. Thanks and enjoy!

**Moments A-C**

* * *

><p><strong>Approval <strong>

_Future: If someone told Lily years ago that she would be fighting for the approval of her boyfriend's bratty little brothers, she probably would've punched them in the face. Now all she wanted to do was cry. _

Lily Santiago was not one of those women that believed in true love or the even more sickening concept of love at first sight. She wasn't trying to find 'the one'. She was content with the single life and most importantly, her career. She was being prepped to become a junior partner at Pearson & Hardman, the most prestigious law firm in New York City. Despite what her mother thought, Lily was happier being single than trapped in a relationship with someone who would ultimately start pushing her to have kids. She had horribly non-existent maternal instincts. She hated the sound of children crying and worried more about her couches than the children when her nieces and nephews came to visit. Lily was certain that she was destined to be single and childless. She was perfectly fine with that idea.

That is until the day she took a shortcut through Central Park on her way to meet a client and happened across a man with the most amazing pair of green eyes playfully chasing after a little girl with a similar shade of eyes. The girl was giggling happily prompting a laugh from the man that was clearly her father. The child ran straight into Lily's leg, using her as a sort of human shield to protect her from the big, bad monster her father was pretending to be. She clutched the back of Lily's pants tightly with small fists. A head full of light brown curls rested against her knee. Lily glanced down to see those bright green eyes staring back at her with a tiny smile revealing a mouth filled with baby teeth. Lily fell a little bit in like with the toddler.

"Oh, I am so sorry about this," the father apologized hastily, bending over to scoop Lily's new little friend into his arms. "Charlie has no boundaries. I think she gets it from her uncles."

"That's ok, I didn't mind," she shockingly really didn't. "I'm Lily."

He smiled brightly, offering his free hand to Lily. She shook his hand and felt a shiver of warmth spread through her. It seemed it was mutual as they both took a second too long to let go. "Uh, yeah, so I'm Dean and this little minx is Charlotte, but she really only answers to Charlie these days. Again I blame her uncles." And maybe, she fell a little bit in love.

That was the moment that changed Lily's life. She suddenly found herself believing in love at first sight and true loves and forever. She was totally and completely head over heels in love with them both. She saw herself being a wife and a mother. However, she quickly learned that to get to them she would have to go through the oft mentioned uncles, Sam and Puck. The few interactions she had with them in the beginning of her relationship with Dean were… not successful. They were not impressed by her in any way shape or form. They didn't seem to care that Dean was just as taken with Lily as she was with him. Neither of Dean's brothers appeared to like Lily and that would make her forever with Dean and Charlie a little bit more complicated than previously suspected.

Initially, Lily really wasn't bothered by it. After all she was a grown ass woman. She was not going to be pushed off by two kids not even out of their teens. But over time and through watching the small family interact, Lily came to the understanding that Dean was part of a package deal. It wasn't just the daughter (which was apparently a deal breaker for several of the women that came before Lily) but it was also the two brothers. Dean needed their approval before he fully committed to anyone. So in order to get her happily ever after, she knew she needed to win them over. She tried every trick in the book, from bribing them to trying to fit in with them to trying to win over their girlfriends (she succeeded only with Santana). Every trick failed when it came to the younger Evans men.

She finally cracked and went to Dean to find out just what so special about those two anyway. The more Dean told her about them, the more she wanted them to like her, not just as Dean's girlfriend but just as someone they wanted to spend time around. Lily didn't just see a future with Dean and Charlie anymore. She now saw her future with Sam and Puck. But the more she tried, the further she got from that goal. If anyone told her that she would desperately be trying to gain approval from two nineteen year old boys, she would've laughed in their face and recommended a psychiatric examination. Now all she wanted to do was cry and possibly punch strangers in the face. She was working on that last one.

The day it all changed started off normally. She invited the boys to a homemade breakfast. They both turned her down. Puck claimed he was busy wrangling midgets while Sam explained that he had to fight a valiant and noble battle against capitalism and unequal class system. Santana later clarified that Puck was somehow suckered into spending the day walking around Broadway with Kurt, Blaine and Rachel while Sam was waiting on line for tickets to some "stupid ass dorky movie" he wanted to see with a bunch of other dorks that camped out the night before. Lily tried not to be disappointed. In other words, it was perfectly normal.

That evening she was resting on Dean's couch with a knocked out, drooling, Charlie sprawled across her chest. Dean was at some three day conference and left Charlie with Lily. The child's soft breathing was soothing to her frayed nerves. She didn't want to screw this up. She couldn't afford to screw this up. She knew neither Sam nor Puck were happy that she was watching Charlie. If she messed this up, then she lost everything. So she resolved to be the best damn babysitter in the world. That meant she wasn't moving off that damn couch for anything. Outside was a world with a never ending potential for things that would screw this up for her. So no, she was staying right here in the apartment and on the couch. Nothing, and no one, was making her move.

Then the phone rang. She groped blindly for her Blackberry which was resting on the coffee table beside them. She just managed to get Charlie to fall asleep, there was no way she was waking her up. So as gently as possible, she answered her phone.

"This is Lily Santiago," she greeted softly, not sure if it were a personal or professional phone call. "Hello?"

"Lily… its Rachel."

Lily sat up straight. Why was Puck's girlfriend calling her? How'd she even get her number? Wait, stupid question. It was Rachel. The girl was scary determined. Shaking that off, Lily focused on the unnatural tone in Rachel's voice. "What's wrong, Rachel?"

"It's Sam," her voice broke at the end. "There was some kind of accident… and we're here at the hospital. And they said they won't give us any information. They said that we have to be family. And we told them that Noah is Sam's brother but they don't believe him because he has a different last name. I think the head nurse might be anti-Semitic. And we don't know what's going on and Noah is upset. And I don't know what to do. And Dean's not here."

Lily was quiet for a moment as she tried to translate Rachel's excited babbling into something she could actually understand. And when that moment of clarity arrived, Lily saw red. How dare they? She took a deep breath and exhaled through her nose like her therapist told her. It helped to push the rage to a dull burning roar in her stomach as opposed to the all encompassing fire that she truly felt. Because seriously? No one messed with her boys.

"What hospital?" she asked in a clipped tone.

"Uh, Beth Israel…. Are you alright?"

"I'm fine. I'll be there in an hour."

Not surprisingly, she arrived at the hospital in ten minutes. Ordinarily a cab ride from Dean's apartment in Brooklyn would take at least thirty minutes. But apparently, she presented with just enough rage to make even the cab driver realize missing a few red lights wasn't worth risking enraging the woman further. She stormed into the hospital with a single minded focus. She didn't need to ask anyone at the desk where she could find Rachel, Puck or anyone involved with Sam because she could hear Santana from the entrance of the ER. Lily hurried in that direction, keeping a tight grip on Charlie as she ran.

"You stupid fat cow!" Santana screamed in the not at all bothered nurse's face. "What do we need to do to prove their related? Bring up the documentation showing he was fucking adopted?"

"Miss, if you don't have a seat, I will have to notify security."

"Do it! And feel free to let them know that you're cutting into their valuable rent a cop donut eating schedule because you feel like fucking with some teenagers tonight!" "

"What's going on?" Lily felt the need to announce her presence now. She walked into the waiting area and felt her heart break a little. Puck was sitting in one of the seats with a completely foreign to Lily expression on his face. He looked crushed. That did not belong on his normally cocky features. His eyes lit up a bit upon seeing Lily and Charlie, but Lily chalked that up more to being happy to see Charlie.

"And you are?" the nurse asked, dismissively.

"My name is Lillian Santiago," she held out her free hand. "I'm here representing Dean Evans, my boyfriend and also the older brother of Sam and Noah Evans. You know, the young man sitting right over there."

"His id says Noah Puckerman."

"That's an old one. One that we will be replacing first thing in the morning," she glanced pointedly over her shoulder at Puck. He blinked but nodded. "Excellent! For your information, his name is Noah Puckerman-Evans," Lily corrected, slowly. "And last time I checked, it wasn't your job to question the actual family connection now is it? He's the kid's brother. It's your legal responsibility to tell him whatever the hell he wants to know."

"Miss…."

"I'm not done yet. Don't interrupt me when I'm talking. It shows bad breeding," Lily snapped. "I'm sure that you've worked in this hospital long enough to know that blood does not make a family. But if that's what you need, here. This is Sam's niece. You can tell her since apparently you're too ignorant to talk to his family."

"I…."

"And," Lily continued. "If you don't get a doctor out here in the next five minutes, I will encourage my boyfriend, their brother, to sue you and the hospital. I wonder how the hospital administrators would feel about that one. I wonder how fast they'd throw you under the bus to cover their own asses. And did I mention I work for Pearson and Hardman?"

"I'll go get Dr. Smith," the woman muttered, turning on her heels and walking away. Lily smirked in satisfaction.

The doctor was out in two minutes. He was also clearly amused by Lily's takedown of the nurse from hell. He explained that Sam was relatively fine. On his way back from the movie theater, the cab he was riding in was rear ended by another car. He had some bruising on his chest from the seatbelt and a small concussion from hitting his head against the partition but he was fine. The staff was hesitant to release him because they couldn't reach his registered next of kin, his older brother. Lily explained that Dean was away on business as they walked towards the treatment room where Sam was waiting. Sam was seated on the bed and Lily couldn't help but notice the same defeated, slumped posture she saw earlier in Puck. It faded as he recognized the people walking into the room.

"It's about damn time you got here," Sam griped as soon as Puck, Santana and Rachel made their way into the room. Though he was complaining, Lily noticed that the previously defensive, worried, look on Sam's face relaxed as soon as he saw his brother. "What took you so long?"

"Nurse Battleaxe wouldn't tell us what was going on with you," Puck retorted, sitting on the exam bed next to Sam. Lily smiled as Sam shifted unconsciously closer to Puck so that their shoulders were touching. "Crazy nurse was blocking us from seeing you."

"Yeah, I met her. She's got a great bedside manner that one," Sam snickered. "Wait, but you're here. So how'd you get past her?"

"Lily used her awesome ninja lawyer skills to verbally smack her down," Puck shrugged. Sam tilted his head to the side in silent contemplation. His gaze flickered briefly towards Lily but then back to his brother. Puck nodded. "You should've seen it. I think the nurse almost pissed her ridiculous puppy printed scrubs."

Before either Sam or Lily could respond to that one, Puck's phone rang. It was Dean. It seemed that someone was finally able to reach him. Although they appeared to give him very little information as well judging by the panic that was evident in his tone when Puck finally answered the phone. Sam and Puck, apparently used to this side of Dean, merely rolled their eyes and as they shared the phone between them.

"Dude, will you calm down," Puck finally said. "Sam's fine."

"Yeah, I promise I'm good, Dean. They were just waiting to send me home with someone responsible. We got Lil. There's no reason for you to drive back tonight. She's totally more responsible than you anyway."

"What?" Dean protested.

"No, she is. Remember the time Puck got hit in the head with the baseball and the doctors told you not to let him sleep but you totally did."

"I could've slipped in a coma, Dean," Puck chimed in.

"A coma, Dean. A coma," Sam repeated. "Lily seems like the type to actually, you know, care if I sleep with a concussion. So chill. We're going home with Lil and Charlie and everything is fine."

Lily blinked at the sudden trust they were placing in her before she just shrugged and accepted it. She would realize later that she finally proved herself to the boys. She finally showed them that she wasn't like all the girls before her. Lily was in this for the long haul and she would totally rip apart anyone that messed with her boys. They were her family now. She was fully aware she had a long night and day ahead of her. She would need to wake Sam up every two hours which would only lead to cranky passive aggressive bitching. She would need to keep Puck from slipping into a depressive funk that she was not quite equipped (yet) to handle, which meant keeping Rachel, Santana and possibly Blaine on hand. And through it all she would need to keep Charlie happy and occupied.

Lily smiled happily, resting her cheek against Charlie's hair. Puck and Sam were still bickering with their older brother over the phone. Yeah, today was a going to be a good day.

* * *

><p><strong>Brothers<strong>

_Present: Sarah Puckerman gains some insight into the complex relationship that is her brother and his brothers. _

Sarah Puckerman always thought she was lucky to have a brother like Puck. Despite his prickly exterior, her brother was pretty giving and awesome. There wasn't a bully he wouldn't confront for her, a scrape he didn't patch up or a hug he didn't return. No, Puck was the best big brother Sarah could ask for. Her childhood was safe and happy because he shielded her from the badness. But at what cost? There wasn't a huge age difference between Sarah and Puck. She knew there were unpleasant moments but Puck went out of his way to make sure she didn't know about them. Puck protected her growing up. But who protected Puck?

When she had to move into their grandmother's house, Sarah was furious with Puck at first. She didn't understand why he would say that about their father. Why didn't he want to be at home with her anymore? She not so secretly blamed Sam and Dean. They were obviously turning him against his real family. As far as she was concerned, Sam and Dean were selfish assholes who just wanted to use Puck. She was determined to feel that way about them forever, until the night she really met them.

It was two weeks after her father died and Puck went back to Sam and Dean after sitting vigil with the family for the required time (and not a minute more). Sarah was excited because Puck was supposed to come over that night. Her mother let her make dinner for them and Sarah planned all of Puck's favorite dishes. She knew that this was the night her mother fixed this once and for all. Her mother would get Puck back. She just knew it.

But Puck didn't come over that night. Instead, the same floppy hair blonde jerk that took Puck in the first place showed up with an even taller, older looking brunette. Sarah hovered in the foyer while her mother to talked to the two brothers.

"This is not up for negotiations," the older one seethed. "Just sign the damn paper, lady."

"He's my son!"

"And you've done such an awesome job raising him too," the blonde asshole laughed. "You don't give a damn about him. You never have and you never have to. He's ours."

Sarah watched the tense hitch in her mother's shoulders. "You don't know Noah the way I do. He's a master manipulator. I don't know what he's told you about me but you should know Noah has a history of lying. He's lazy, aimless and has no goals for his future outside of a life of crime and spreading his seed to as many bastard children as he can."

"Great!" the older one grinned, looking very much like a shark. "So you won't mind if we take him off your hands then. I mean if he's all the things you just described, you wouldn't want that around you. Sammy and I personally think he's pretty good. So you can just feel free to sign that paper and we'll take care of your problem."

"He's…."

"Your son," blondie finished. "We heard. But you clearly don't want him around. Or is it that you need him around to keep being your verbal punching bag."

"Sam," the other one cut him off. "I got this. Listen, Mrs. Puckerman, it's like this. You can sign this paper and terminate your parental rights tonight or we can do this through the courts."

"Noah would never testify against me."

"You're right. And he'll never have to. You realize that there are people that knew him growing up. There are enough people that remember his suspicious bruises or the lengthy absences from school or the multiple trips to the ER for his 'clumsiness'. It might not be enough to win a case but the way I figure is that with all that testimony I could keep that case tangled up until he's eighteen. Your reputation would be trashed though and Puck will still be with me. So take the easy road, it's what you're good at. Sign the damn paper."

Debra looked shaken but Sarah knew she wouldn't sign the papers. She loved Puck as much as Sarah did. She would fight for her son.

"Why are you doing this for him? Surely you have your own family to care about."

"I do and he's a big part of it. So let's get this over with and we'll be on our way. One less thing for you to worry about."

Sarah watched in horror as her mother snatched the papers away and scrawled her name across them. She threw the papers back with a disgusted sneer. "He's yours now. I don't want to hear it in a few weeks when you can't take him anymore."

Dean's jaw ticked. "Lady, you're really lucky my mother taught me not hit women. Although, the shit you allowed to happen to your son makes you less than human in my eyes. My momma never said nothing about not hitting things lower than dirt."

Sarah silently pleaded for her mother to deny it all. To argue with them and get her brother back… but she didn't. Debra Puckerman merely exchanged a few more insults with them before throwing the keys to Puck's truck at them when Sam pointed out that she no longer had any reason to be holding onto the truck. They left after that and Sarah was suddenly all too aware that they would never be a family again.

"Mom?" she asked, quietly as Debra walked away from the door. "Why did you do that?"

Debra opened her mouth to reply but no words came out. She took a few more minutes before exhaling slowly. "Sweetheart, you have to understand. Your brother… he's not like you. Noah has always been a troublemaker. And now he's got these boys believing things that just aren't true. I could fight it but I don't want to risk losing you again."

Sarah nodded slowly. It did make sense. The last time her brother made the accusations about their father, she had to live with their grandmother for two months. That sucked. It was only after her father died that she was allowed to go back home. She didn't want to risk having to go back to her grandmother again. She smelled like arthritis creams and fish. It was not a pleasant place. No, she definitely wasn't going back, not even for Puck. If he wanted to be selfish, well she could too. She wasn't going to let him destroy what was left of this family.

It wasn't until months later that she finally understood the truth. On one level, she always knew that there was something not right between her mother and brother. That she was treated differently than him. But it wasn't until she watched Puck talking with Dean on the night he got accepted to NYU that she realized how very differently she was treated. She never saw her brother smile like that when he was talking with their parents. She never saw their mother look at Puck with pride and love like Dean did when he looked at both Sam and Puck. They made him complete. They made him happy.

For the first time in his life, someone was watching out for Puck. They were protecting him from the bad things in the world…. from his family. She finally understood their true motivations that night. They weren't trying to tear apart her family. They were trying to build her brother back again. Sarah smiled as she watched her brother laughing with _his_ older brother. She glanced down at the phone still in her hand and sent him a text message. She watched him receive the message and smile.

She looked back at her mother who was watching her son too. She thought that she may have seen a hint of regret in her mother's eyes. But she figured it was probably just wishful thinking. And even if it wasn't, it was definitely too late for that. But it wasn't too late for Sarah. Debra noticed her daughter's gaze and shrugged.

"Go, if he lets you. He's clearly chosen them over us."

Sarah snorted. "No. He's chosen them over you," she pointed out before heading down the driveway to her waiting brother. She wrapped her hands around his arm and basked in the joy of having her Noah back for the first time in almost a year.

"Wait, everything on the pizza means that I can get pineapple, right?" Sam piped up as they continued the trek to the pizzeria.

"No, Sam! You do not get pineapple!"

"Dude, what's your beef with pineapple?" Sam asked with a smirk on his lips. Puck scoffed.

"What's your obsession with it? It's weird! It has spikes on it. Why the hell does fruit have spikes on it? What's that about? It's just not natural. It's like it's trying to protect itself against you eating it. It's supposed to be good for you but it's trying to kill you for eating it!"

Sarah giggled at the uncharacteristic for the brother she knew rant. When he was living with them Puck never talked like this. Sure, he was loud. At times he was cocky bordering on arrogant, but he was never as carefree as he was now. He didn't walk around on eggshells. She liked this version of her brother. Apparently, Sam did as well because he sighed dramatically.

"Fine, since someone is scared of pineapple, I guess I can sacrifice it for one night."

Puck rolled his eyes. "You're such a passive aggressive ass."

"I'm not passive aggressive!"

"Are too."

"Are not."

"Hey!" Dean shouted. "Act your ages and not your shoe sizes."

Sam and Puck exchanged looks and identical smirks. "So says the old man!"

"That's it. I'm buying both of you idiots pink crap for your dorm room!"

"No!"

"Oh, Dean," Rachel turned around from where she and Santana were walking slightly ahead of the group. "Might I suggest a My Little Pony theme as well?"

"Judas!" Puck hissed.

"Don't blame Rachel because you both like MLP," Santana grinned. "After all it's not her fault you two were….."

Santana trailed off as both boys lunged in her direction. She laughed as she dodged away from them and ran further up the street. Rachel was trailing behind them filming the whole ridiculous scene on her iPhone for Blaine and Quinn. This left Sarah behind with an amused Dean. He shook his head at his brothers' behavior and smiled.

"Hey, Dean?"

"Yes, Mini Puck?"

"Mini Puck?" she repeated with a raised eyebrow.

"You look like him minus the eyes," Dean shrugged. "So what's up?"

"I just wanted…. Thank you."

"For?"

"For taking care of him."

Dean nodded thoughtfully. "He's not forgetting you, just so you know. You're still his sister. He's just our brother too."

"I get that," she replied. "And I'm sorry."

"Why?"

"Because I used to think you were a home-wrecking asshole."

Dean snorted, slinging his arm around her shoulders. "Well, you're right about the last part. Don't let the fact that I occasionally like those two fool you. I'm a total asshole."

Sarah knew better than to believe that one. But she let think him she did. It seemed important for him to protect his completely false reputation. See, she could totally get on board with this protecting thing.

* * *

><p><strong>Cougars <strong>

_Present: Dean always heard about the cougars. But it wasn't until they were grocery shopping one afternoon and he found Puck practically pinned between two incredibly desperate housewives that he gave it any real thought._

Dean always heard the rumors about the cougars. It was hard not to. In the month since Noah Puckerman moved in with the Evans brothers, Dean was forced to hear more about the kids' life than he cared to know, especially since it wasn't coming from the kid himself. The one that worried him the most was the one about the cougars. Sure it was amusing to hear about middle aged women who preyed on younger men. But it became decidedly less amusing when that younger man was your seventeen year old brother who was currently pinned against one of the shelves in the grocery store clutching a box of cereal and being held down by two very desperate housewives.

"I told you!" Puck protested, oblivious to Dean's approach. "I'm not doing that anymore."

"But Puck," Mrs. Finley from down the street cooed. She trailed a finger down his cheek. Dean noted that Puck flinched from the simple touch yet no one around him did a damn thing. He even saw a few people shaking their heads and muttering about Puck as if he was the problem in this situation.

"Mrs. Finley, Mrs. Tram, I'm sorry but I'm just not in the business anymore," Puck's voice dragged him out of his murderous thoughts.

"Oh, but Noah, don't you think you could make an exception for old time's sake," Mrs. Tram spoke next, deciding that maybe she could persuade Puck. Dean was dimly aware of a low growling sound echoing in the aisle. He wondered vaguely who let a dog in the store until all thoughts flew out of his head at the sight of Mrs. Finley caressing Puck's arm. He realized the growling was coming from him as he charged down the aisle, grabbed Puck and the box of cereal he was sent to retrieve almost ten minutes ago and shoved the kid behind him.

"Keep your hands off my brother," Dean snarled in their direction. The two women blinked in surprise. "I don't know what went down before he came to live with me and quite frankly I don't care. But that shit stops now. I even think I see one of you sniffing around him, I will have you all locked up so fast your very obviously fake hair will spin. And newsflash, they don't let you keep up with your manicures and extensions in prison!"

"Noah doesn't have a brother," Mrs. Finley snapped, resting her hands on her hips. "Look, kid, Noah is exclusively about the women. So if you want a piece of that, you're barking up the wrong tree."

Dean never really knew how someone could see red until that exact moment. Thankfully, Puck was slightly more in control. He grabbed a hold of Dean's collar and pulled the older man out the store, abandoning the cereal along the way. Once outside, Dean started to pace as Puck sat down on a bench.

"I'm sorry," Puck started as Dean's agitated pacing slowed. Dean stared him, silently wondering what the hell Puck had to be sorry about. "I'm sorry about all that…..I can go home now if you want me to leave. I understand."

Dean sighed softly and sat down next to his new little brother. If someone had told him a few months ago that he would be all but adopting a kid more damaged than Sam after their parents died, Dean would've laughed. He never thought it was possible to be worse than that and if there was, he didn't want to be anywhere near that. He was so painfully wrong on all fronts. He very much wanted Puck around. But he was concerned that Puck didn't get that. Every single little mistake the kid made had him thinking that Dean wanted him gone. The older of the brothers decided at that moment he was going to ask Sam what his secret was. Not once did Puck ever doubt that Sam wanted him around. But Dean? Puck questioned him every single minute of the day.

"Puck, I do not want you to leave," he started, trying to keep his voice calm. "Look, you and I are really similar. We both suck at the whole emotions thing. That's incredibly awkward given that I'm a therapist. I'm supposed to talk about feelings and shit." He was rewarded with a small chuckle from the too quiet teen beside him. "Listen, it's like this. I didn't offer to let you move in because I thought it was going to be easy. I've heard the stories about you and I know that there are still more things that I don't know about you. But nothing I find out is ever going to make me want to kick you out."

Puck lifted his head slightly. "You called me your brother… back there."

"You are," Dean said, leaning into his shoulder. "I know that you have a crap idea of how families work but just know this: family doesn't always mean blood. You're my brother. You were from the minute Sam brought you home last month. I'm not kicking you out, Puck. This is your home."

They sat in silence for a minute longer before Puck bumped his shoulder against Dean's. "Dude, you're such a girl, sometimes."

Dean gave a surprised bark of laughter and nodded. "What can I say? Sam's vagina growing powers have been working on me too."

"So he really does have them?" Puck asked, a little too seriously. Dean shook his head in amusement. "Also… where is Sam?"

Dean sat up straight. He was so focused on getting Puck away from the Real Housewives of Lima that he totally forgot he went in the store with two teenage boys. This parenting thing was going to take some getting used to. Thank the gods he didn't have any small children. He'd probably end up leaving them at a gas station or something.

Just as he was getting up to run back into the store, the automatic doors slid open revealing an amused Sam Evans. He had a hand clapped over his mouth that was poorly concealing the gut busting laughs threatening to burst out. Dean was both relieved and confused by his little brother's appearance.

"What's so funny?"

Sam grinned. "There are these middle aged women throwing stuff at each other in the cereal aisle. Apparently they were trying to do something kinky and weird with a pool boy and apparently some, in their words, queer showed up and took him away."

Dean's eyes widened and he looked to Puck to gauge his reaction. Puck looked similarly surprised but it soon melted to amusement. Dean could only watch his two odd, but still beloved, little brothers giggle like school girls on the bench.

"So wait, why are you two out here anyway? And weren't you supposed to be getting cereal?" Sam asked as his laughter slowly quieted. Puck's laughter stopped abruptly and he sobered quickly. "Shit, dude, no? Really?"

"Yeah," Puck muttered a flush creeping up his neck. Sam nudged him in the stomach.

"At least they were hot," Sam grinned, prompting Puck to laugh once again.

Dean noticed a change in his baby brother when he and Puck first started their friendship. He always worried that Sam was too quiet and too dorky. He didn't seem to fit in anywhere they went. Even as a little kid he was sticking out like a sore thumb. When he first said he was joining the glee club, Dean was somewhat happy that he'd finally found a group of misfits and outcasts where he could belong. That is until he noticed that his baby brother was on the fringe of the little group. Only Sam could be an outcast in a group of so-called losers. So Dean was back to worrying. And then he brought home Puck. Puck who connected with him and who gelled with him. Even if the others ditched them both the very next day, Dean knew that Sam and Puck were going to be best friends for life….. Man, he was turning into a girl.

"Alright, Gossip Girls," Dean said, cutting off their laughter. "Let's get the hell out of here before Puck gets molested… some more."

Puck rolled his eyes but the lazy smile was still pulling at his lips. "I can't help if I'm a stud."

"No, you can't," Dean agreed. "But you can help it if something like that ever happens again. Dude, I don't care if you thought it was badass. It's not. They're grown ass women and you're a child. What they did was not cool. And if something like that ever happens again, you tell me and I'll handle it."

"Why?"

Dean knew he was more asking why Dean would care enough to help him but he chose to ignore that. Instead he decided to focus on the other aspect of why.

"I'm the adult in this situation. It's my job to make sure you two stay safe. And that means safe from soccer moms," he paused. He couldn't help but slip the truth in there. Maybe he wasn't crap at this emotions thing after all. "And because you're my brother. That's just what I do."

"Not true," Sam protested. "What about that time when I was ten and Donald Duck was harassing me at Disney World."

"Dude, it's the Donald. I don't think it constitutes harassment when all he wanted to do was hug you," Dean rolled his eyes. "Not to mention, mom wanted you to take the picture and all you did was cry."

"He has no pants," Sam muttered. "Why is it just ok for a man to walk around in a duck suit with no pants hugging little children while people take pictures? What the hell is wrong with America?"

Dean raised an eyebrow. "What the hell is wrong with you?" he turned to face Puck, who was walking silently beside them to the car. "Did you ever run away from Donald?"

"Uh, I never went to Disney World," Puck replied, somewhat hesitantly. "My mom and my sister went a few times but I never went."

Dean stopped in his tracks. "Your mother took your sister and left you here?"

"Yeah, it's not a big deal. I mean it's just Disney World."

Sam scoffed. "Dude, it's so a big deal. It's called the happiest place on earth for a reason!" while Dean did agree with it being a big deal, he felt the situation should've been handled with a little more tact (or some tact to begin with). It was a little harsh to rub it in the kid's face that he wasn't liked enough by his family to go on a family vacation. "So it's official."

"What is?" Puck asked, skeptically. His eyes were wary and Dean was very tempted to drive over to the Puckerman household and beat the crap out of anyone that made him feel wary around people that cared about him. Sam seemed to feel the same way as he took a moment to reply but when he did it was the same wide smile that he always wore when he said something Dean wasn't going to like.

"Dean's going to take us to Disney World."

"Dean is?" Dean repeated.

"Yes, Dean is," Sam stressed. "You have to take us to Disney World. It's an important milestone in our young lives that Puck has yet to make. This means that as his brothers, it's our god given responsibility to get him through this." Sam continued to beam with that slightly scary smile and nudged Puck in the ribs. The youngest of the pair blinked before seemingly picking up on Sam's crazy train of thought.

"You are the adult in this situation," Puck reminded him with a smirk. "Isn't that what you're supposed to do?"

Dean wanted to be annoyed. He wanted to smack both of them for ganging up on him. But he wasn't and he couldn't. Because damn it, they were both under his skin. They were damaged and he wanted to fix them both. And if taking the brats to Disney World would be a step in the right direction, then he was totally taking them to Disney World…. and this time Sam was totally taking a picture with Donald.

But first they were getting the hell out of the parking lot because yet another one of Puck's Pool Cougars just pulled in and was eyeing (and Sam) hungrily. Dean frowned as he recognized the mother of one of his clients. That explained so damn much.

"What did you service all of Lima?"

"I had to get money somehow!"

"Yeah, well, that's over. You money, you ask me. I'll give it to you and you get to keep your damn clothes on."

With that said, Dean shoved both boys in the car before ducking into the driver's seat and speeding away from the whole, bothersome scene. It wasn't until they were halfway home that Dean remembered that they never did get around to buying those groceries. He thought about it for a moment before getting on the highway towards Carmel. It was just easier this way.

* * *

><p>*Well, I hope that you enjoyed these. There are more to come if anyone is interested in them. Ciao have a great evening!<p> 


	9. Moments D & E

"The Totally Not Dorky but Awesome and Badass Bromantic Tales of the Puckerone and Trouty Mouth"

**Summary:** Life is simply a series of interconnected moments that guide us along. Here are some of the moments in the collective lives of the Evans family.

**Pairings:** Samtana, Puckleberry, Bartie, Klaine, Chang-squared and Wemma. Past Finnchel. Suck, Pucktana, Pezberry and Puck/Blaine (Plaine?) friendships

**Warnings:** No real spoilers involved in this story. It's obviously very AU as I totally made up Sam's family life. So nothing really spoilery in here. Be warned, this fic does deal with sensitive issues (child abuse, domestic violence and homophobia). It's not terribly graphic but it is mentioned and discussed by several characters.

**Disclaimer:** I in no way shape or form own _Glee_ despite my continued efforts because if I did Chord Overstreet would still be on the show. I do own Sam's brother Dean. But even that shtick is borrowed from _Supernatural_… which I also don't own.

**Author's Note:** So glad that people liked the last three. I was trying to aim for three more but I was struggling enough with these two. I just wanted to post them and be done with them. I'll try working on more while I'm away. I've got a long flight from NY to Seattle to write something, so hopefully I'll have F-H done by the time I come back. Buy I hope you enjoy these two. As I said, I struggled with these two but I'm happy with the outcome. I hope you all will be too! Enjoy.

**Moments D & E**

* * *

><p><strong>Drunk<strong>

_Future - Sam really never noticed it before but while Puck drank he never got drunk. Not unusual until you remember that this is Puck, the walking, talking ball of angst and insecurity. Dark thoughts and fluffy Hallmark moments ahead._

Sam wasn't sure why he really never noticed it until now. Maybe it was because he always had other things on his mind in the moment but he was reasonably sure that he was supposed to notice something like that. He really should've paid attention to the fact that Puck never got drunk. Sure, his brother drank but he was never actually drunk. Sam honestly didn't know why the concept bothered him. It wasn't like any of them were alcoholics or that into getting trashed but it seemed that Puck put a limit on himself and Sam never noticed it before. He prided himself on knowing the quirks in his best friend turned brother's personality and this was one he never really saw. It probably had to do with the fact that while Puck was stopping after his second, sometimes third, beer, Sam was already three sheets to the wind dancing on tabletops with Brittany and Santana. And yes, Sam was very aware that night was not among his finer moments and he would greatly appreciate Rachel removing the incriminating photos from her Facebook page one day in the near future. Anyway, it wasn't until after they were of actual legal drinking age (he was certain that 19 was the legal drinking age somewhere in the world) that Sam finally picked up on his brother's habit.

It was during one of their usual summer meet ups. With the exception of Rachel, Puck and Sam, the majority of the gleeks who went to New York didn't have family in the city, which meant that most of them went home during the summer breaks. That is, except for said, Rachel, Puck and Sam and the usual combo of Santana and Blaine, who were pretty close to being actually adopted by the Berry's at this point. Though they were all busy working, taking summer classes or in general lazing around the apartment (Sam), they took the time out to meet up at least once a week. Although they saw each other in some capacity on a daily basis, these gatherings were part of the stability they needed once they all moved to the city.

"You're not drinking?" Santana commented, after Sam placed their drink orders. She leaned against the bar, eyeing her boyfriend curiously.

"Dean is at one of those stupid conferences yet again," Sam sighed, heavily. "He's coming home crazy late or early if you think about it. Anyway, he claims he's tired of paying for cabs when he has brothers. So I'm keeping it clean tonight since I have to go get the whiny jerk. He thinks he has the right to boss us around just because he pays the majority of our college expenses."

"Actually, he does," Santana replied with a grin. "But if you want to chill, why doesn't Puck drive when you go pick him up?"

"He's had a rough week. Figured he could use the break. So he can unwind and drink to his heart's content and I'll be the responsible one for the night," Sam shrugged, picking up the pitcher of beer and his own soda. It was because he was already on his way back to the table that he failed to notice Santana's confused, and concerned, look.

An hour later, they were on their fourth pitcher and Santana was eyeing the jukebox in the corner with a predator like glare. She would be dancing before this night was over. He just hoped it wasn't going to be too embarrassing as she always seemed to find a way to blame it on him in the morning. Blaine and Rachel were similarly intoxicated and arguing over the best Broadway musicals. Sam tuned the conversation out as they continued to debate between RENT and Hairspray. He knew it was going to resort to a sing off eventually. It always did with those two. He just hoped that it was after Santana attacked the jukebox. He could use the distraction from the usual Spanish filled tongue lashing.

Now that the terrible trio had been accounted for and as settled as they would be for the next thirty minutes at least, Sam sought out his brother. The last thing he needed was for Dean to find out that he let Puck get smashed and only stood by and watched as Puck did something totally embarrassing. Sam tried to recall his brother's drunken habits and found that he couldn't. He was drawing a total blank. That was very concerning as he still remembered all of their friends' drunken (and annoying) habits. Finn developed a conscience when he was drunk and had the ridiculous habit of calling the people he wronged the most in life and crying until said person hung up on him. Sam and Puck were the on the receiving end of way too many of those phone calls. Quinn still was an angry drunk but thankfully that was Matt's problem now. Mike was a loud drunk. The alcohol lowered his inhibitions and apparently his subconscious was a very loud, bordering on obnoxious asshole.

Sam knew all of these (and so very many more) but for the life of him, he couldn't remember what Puck was like when he was drunk. Then another thought occurred to him. He couldn't remember when he ever saw Puck drunk in the first place. He turned a confused look in Puck's direction and found his brother sipping on a beer, watching Rachel and Blaine's escalating argument with amusement in his eyes. Sam sat back in his seat. He would just have to watch him closely tonight then. That would solve that problem.

Except it didn't. Because as far as he could tell, Puck was drinking the same glass of beer for over an hour. Puck went to the bar while Sam was trying to break up the not insignificant bitch fight that broke out between Rachel and Blaine. He was midway through a lecture about how hair pulling between friends was not cool when Puck returned with another pitcher, a soda and a small glass of clear liquid. Sam relaxed, assuming that it was vodka and that he would soon have the answer to what Puck was like when he was drunk. He then turned back to the new task of pulling Santana off the bar. Because this was not _Coyote Ugly_ damn it.

Three hours of exasperation with their drunken friends later, Puck and Sam called it quits and dropped the idiots off with Leroy and Hiram. They then backed out as quickly as possible claiming that they needed to go get Dean from the airport. Between the fighting and the dancing, Sam forgot his earlier question but it came back to him as he noticed Puck fidgeting in the passenger seat. That was actually normal Puck behavior. Puck twitched and fidgeted. It was his thing. His very sober, normal thing.

"You're not drunk," Sam blurted out before he could stop to think about what he was saying.

Puck snorted in amusement. "Can't get anything past you, huh?"

"Very funny, smart ass. I just meant that… you didn't drink much tonight. Just a few beers and then whatever the hell you had after that."

"It was just water."

"Water?"

"That's what I said."

Sam drummed his fingers on the steering wheel thoughtfully. Puck drank water? He frowned as several pieces of information clicked into place for him. How many times had he seen Puck drinking water and just assumed? He fucking assumed! He knew better than anyone to never assume with Puck. His brother was the master at making you believe something that was totally opposite from reality and Sam actually fell for it.

"You don't get drunk."

"What?"

Sam glanced at him out the corner of his eye. "It's not just tonight. It's every time we go out. You never actually get drunk. It's like you stop yourself. You never let go."

"Are you just babbling out loud or is there a point to this, Sammy?"

"It's just that… I don't really remember you ever getting drunk."

Puck was silent. The fidgeting stilled abruptly. Sam didn't need to look to know that there was a thoughtful look on Puck's face. Sam realized belatedly that they had just unexpectedly tripped into the bad place. The place where they really hadn't been in awhile so naturally it was time to revisit Puck's demons. Then finally it clicked for Sam.

"Your dad drank a lot. And he was a really mean, angry drunk. You don't drink because you think you'll be like that?"

He could see Puck's head nod in his peripheral vision. "I mean, come on, I'm pretty much violent and impulsive without alcohol. I don't want to think about how bad I would be like if I were drunk. I might be worse…. I don't want to be like him, Sammy. I never want to accidentally lose control and hurt my family or anyone really."

"Hey," Sam called, until he sensed Puck's eyes on him. He tore his gaze away from the road for a brief moment to look his brother in the eyes. "You are nothing like him. He was an asshole who didn't realize how amazing the people around him were. He was blind to his family. You put family above everything, including yourself. Hell, especially yourself. You're nothing like your father. And you never will be. I won't let you."

"You won't, huh?"

"Nope," Sam grinned, hearing the faint traces of amusement in the other's voice. "Remember that night?" he didn't need to explain what night. It was just understood with them. "I told you that we were friends and that meant that I would always have your back. Family means I've got your back and then some. I'll make sure you keep from going under."

Puck laughed dryly but Sam knew he took the message for what it was. "Why do we always have these deep heart to heart talks in or around cars?"

"Awesome timing and a location that doesn't require us to look at one another completely thus avoiding a situation where this would ratchet the moment up to more chick flick than either of us could truly handle."

"…. That was meant to be rhetorical, dumbass."

"I know."

They exchanged quickly glances before laughing. Sam felt lighter as they managed to put away the bad thoughts for another evening. He wasn't naïve enough to believe that Puck would ever be able to forgive and forget everything he went through in his life. But he did know that there was a lot progress in the past four years and that his brother (in every way possible) was truly beginning to move on.

"So, dude, all of this was your fancy way of saying you want me to get drunk?"

"No!" Sam protested, quickly. "Just… I was thinking tonight that's all. I understand your reasons and I totally support you. But just know for peace of mind and all that, you're nothing like him and you never will be. You don't have to watch yourself so carefully. That is what you've got big brothers for, remember?"

Puck let out a soft huffing sound and nodded slowly. "Yeah, I remember." There was a lull in the conversation and Sam knew that Puck was actually thinking it over. "So you do realize that you're volunteering to be the designated drunk wrangler if I should decide to take you up on that offer?"

"For you, yes. The others are just so out of luck. I'm definitely never getting involved in another hour long crying fest between Mercedes and Kurt and why their significant others enjoy spending more time with their friends than them."

Puck giggled. "Should I feel bad about stealing Blaine away so much?"

"Even if I said yes, would you actually feel bad?"

"No."

Sam laughed. Sometimes he really adored his idiot brothers

Two months later, they were back in the same bar and Sam finally got the answer to his question. His little brother was a downright cuddly and affectionate drunk. It actually did figure. Puck was a pretty tactile person when sober. It totally figured that he was clingy and almost cavity inducing sweet with lowered inhibitions. If it wasn't so adorable, Sam would've punched him in the face. But it was sweet, and really Puck was making liberal use of the puppy dog eyes that evening. He definitely owed Dean an apology for all the years he mocked the older man for his single minded obsession with taking down those eyes.

"Sam, Sammy?"

Speak of the devil…. Sam turned away from the inevitable, but still pending, fight that Mike was getting into at the bar. He watched for a few moments before he decided that Matt had the situation covered and whatever happened, Mike probably deserved it anyway because no that girl was not looking at Tina. So he turned his full attention to the bright, hazel eyes that seemed to sparkling even in the dim lighting in the bar. "Yes, Puck," he said, rolling his eyes for the fifth time that night.

"You know that I'm so happy you're my brother."

"Yeah, dude. I know. You've only told me like every five minutes." He paused when he saw Puck pouting. Like actually legit pouting and the shiny eyes were glistening. He sighed. Someone was spending way too much with Brittany. He nudged his brother with his shoulder and smiled indulgently. "But you can tell me again. I don't mind." He let out a gasp of air as Puck hugged him tightly.

"You're the best, Sammy."

"You're not so bad either, bro."

And in the morning when Sam was telling him all of his drunken antics, including how he felt the need to call Dean (every hour on the hour) and let him know how much he loved him too, Sam also pointed out how Puck was very much the opposite of his father in every aspect of the word. It almost made up for the fact that there was a picture of Puck hugging Sam on Rachel's Facebook page. It was in the same album as Sam dancing on a table that she refused to take down. It almost made up for that. Almost. But not quite. They were so hacking that damn page.

* * *

><p><strong>Extended<strong>

_Future. It was always Sam and Dean against the world. Until one day slowly but surely their little family became grew until it included another brother, a daughter, and several amazingly weird yet cool cousins, girlfriends, sister like people and future gold winning gymnastic spawn._

Sam always wanted a big family. He wanted lots of brothers and sisters. He wanted lots of cousins he could play with, aunts and uncles that would adore him. But what he got was one older brother who was too old to find the things he found cool. Parents that loved him but found him too much to think about having another child. His Uncle Bobby was pretty cool but he was always trying to get him to work on cars with him. That was more Dean's thing. Then there was his aunt, who was way too busy with her own daughters to really notice him. He figured it was just understood that he really didn't mess with his cousins. They took special to a whole new level. So Sam resigned himself to the fact that he would never have a big family.

"Uncle Sammy?"

Sam looked up from the text on his lap to his too adorable six year old niece that he was currently babysitting for the evening. He was actually sharing babysitting duties with Puck but he knew his brother was passed out somewhere in the apartment. Puck was starting to get a reputation in the music industry. As a result, he was getting a lot more paying gigs around the city. Between that, his actual school work and family obligations, Puck was exhausted. So Sam let him sleep while he took care of Charlie. It wasn't like she was high maintenance.

"What's up, princess?" he asked, pushing his book to the side and focusing on her entirely.

"Can I show you my picture?"

Sam grinned, lifting her off the floor and onto his lap. "I would love to see your picture, sweetheart. What is it?"

"Our family," she replied. She opened up the folded up paper in her hands. He smiled at the stick figures representing various people.

"So who is this?"

"That's Daddy and Mommy," Charlie pointed at the colorful caricatures that did somewhat actually resembled Dean and Lily. Especially Lily's ever present heels. "This is you and Uncle Puck." Sam stifled the laugh at the tiny guitar clutched in Puck's hands and the jagged edges on the top of his head, no doubt meant to represent a mohawk. He was going to kill Santana though as he noticed the exaggerated lips on his own stick figure. Her nickname was starting to stick with his niece. He shook off his vengeful thoughts when he realized there still were a lot more people in this picture than he thought would be there.

"Charlie, who are all these other people?"

"The rest of the family," Charlie replied, her tone clearly calling into his question his intelligence. She pointed to one of the smaller figures standing near his and Puck's replicas. "That's Rachel and that's Satan." Sam smirked. Damn if he was going to let his niece call him Uncle Trouty Mouth and Santana was going to get away with nothing. He shook his thoughts off as Charlie continued to point other people on the page. With a start, he realized that she was pointing out the rest of the gleeks.

"Why did you put them in here?"

"Because they're family," Charlie said. Her brow furrowed and a tiny lip poked out. "Aren't they? Mommy said family isn't always blood. That's she is my mommy even if that other _puta_ actually is."

"Charlie! I thought we talked about repeating words you hear around Satan and your uncle."

"Actually mommy said that about my teacher this morning."

Sam's eyes widened before he shrugged. He met Charlie's teacher earlier in the school year. She was kind of a bitch. He let his fingers trail across the rainbow collage of figures on the paper. When he looked back on the happiest moments in his life, they usually involved some combination of the people assembled on that paper. Dean and Puck were his brothers but he realized it didn't end there. Charlie was right.

It was pretty much a given that with the addition of Puck, they had to include Rachel. They were practically engaged at this point. And with Rachel came her fathers, who had taken to Charlie as naturally as they had the Evans brothers. And then of course was Santana. Though they cycled rapidly through being on and off again lately, Sam knew it would always be Santana. He knew in his heart that they were endgame. Blaine, Mike, Artie and the new/old addition of Matt were honorary brothers, or cousins as Puck sometimes called them. Quinn and Brittany were as a close as sisters. Sometimes they joked that Puck and Brittany were more like twins. It was a comparison neither of them minded.

"What's that?" was most likely what Puck intended to say. What actually came out was a garbled mess but Sam was fluent in sleep deprived Puck. He tilted his head back to watch Puck shuffling out of their shared bedroom, rubbing his eyes like a sleepy toddler.

"Good nap?"

"Eh," Puck shrugged, dropping onto the sofa beside them. Charlie immediately abandoned Sam and crawled into Puck's lap. He didn't react to her change in positions except to carefully wrap his arms around her. "So what's that?"

"Charlie's family tree," he held the picture up for Puck to examine. Hazel eyes blinked sluggishly, taking the picture in with a nod. "So you agree?"

"I think I have stupid hair in that picture, munchkin," he murmured to Charlie. Clearly Puck's exhaustion was contagious as the previously wide awake child was now drifting in the warm embrace of her uncle. Her rested on his shoulder and a small fist clutched his shirt tightly. Sam's lips quirked slightly. Puck's gaze narrowed slightly, finally taking in his less than enthusiastic reaction. "You ok, bro?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. Just realized I'm a little on the slow side."

Puck's wide eyed response to that was almost comical. "Uh, you only just now came to that realization realized that?"

"Yes, asshole. I always wanted a big family. I just never realized that I already had one."

"It doesn't get much bigger or more awesome than this," Puck indicated with a nod of his head. "What more do you want?"

Sam's fingers traced over the picture idly as he contemplated those words. What more did he want? He glanced over at his once again sleeping brother and knocked out niece. His head turned towards the front door as a bickering Dean and Lily entered the apartment. He had no idea what they were arguing about this time but it was bound to be something stupid judging by the smirks on both their faces.

Charlie was right. Blood didn't make a family. The relationships and interactions were what made them a family. Puck was his brother as much as Dean was. Lily was Charlie's mother more than Cassie ever would be. And Blaine, Artie, Mike and Matt were more cousins to him than his own biological cousins. They were an unlikely, totally insane collage of individuals thrown together but Sam found he couldn't live without them.

"Hey, Sammy," Dean called, leaning over the back of the sofa. "Settle this for me and my very insane fiancée, please."

"For the last time, Dean. I am not insane. I'm pregnant. There is a big difference. Let's see how sane you sound when you're carrying your goddamn twin spawn! They're like doing back flips in there."

"So we sign them up for gymnastics if they're girls. If they're boys," Dean paused before shrugging. "We'll accept them for who they are."

Sam's eyes flickered between the couple. Maybe he could live without some of them. But then again…. "Uh, guys, you were saying something about settling a debate?"

"Oh, right. Who would win in a fight, cavemen or astronauts?" Lily asked with her hands on her hips and expression totally devoid of any sign of levity. She was serious. A quick glance to the left showed that Dean was similarly stone faced.

Sam blinked. "You're actually for real about this? You're both grown ass supposedly functional members of society not to mention adults and you're really arguing about whether a cavemen or an astronaut would win in a fight." Sam watched as they shrugged off his legitimate concerns after a brief moment of contemplation. Damn this family was insane.

"Hey, don't blame us," Dean retorted, correctly guessing Sam's thoughts. "Artie started it."

"I thought Mike started it," Lily murmured absently.

"Oh, no, I think Brittany posted it this morning on Facebook," Dean nodded. "Yeah, Brittany started it and then Artie continued it."

Sam blinked again. "Well, do the astronauts have weapons?" Puck asked, suddenly wide awake. Sam had a theory that fed off the chaos waves that their inner circle gave off freely. That had to be the only way to explain how his brother happily functioned in the midst of all that crazy. And he might not be the only one.

"Yeah, do they? This entire debate could be rendered completely useless with that little fact. So do the astronauts have weapons?"

"No," Dean replied, much to Lily's obvious chagrin.

"Then its cavemen," Sam and Puck answered in unison.

"Ha!" Dean yelled, pointing in Lily's face. She frowned in his direction before lifting Charlie off Puck's lap.

"You're sleeping on the couch!" Lily announced primly before flouncing off into their bedroom with the still sleeping Charlie.

"She can't do that. She can't do that, right?" Dean frowned, clearly confused. "Can she do that?"

Sam shrugged while Puck smirked. "Doesn't matter if she can do that. Because she just did."

"Damn it!"

They were insane. They were definitely more than he could handle sometimes but they were everything Sam wanted, needed and then some.

* * *

><p>*And that's the end for now. I hope they were enjoyable! I will be getting to work on F-H right after I finish the next chapter of Living for the First Time. Hopefully they'll all be done to my liking (i.e. posting quality) by the time I get back next Wednesday! Have a lovely weekend everyone. Until next time.<p> 


	10. Moments F to H

"The Totally Not Dorky but Awesome and Badass Bromantic Tales of the Puckerone and Trouty Mouth"

**Summary:** Life is simply a series of interconnected moments that guide us along. Here are some of the moments in the collective lives of the Evans family.

**Pairings:** Samtana, Puckleberry, Bartie, Klaine, Chang-squared and Wemma. Past Finnchel. Suck, Pucktana, Pezberry and Puck/Blaine (Plaine?) friendships

**Warnings:** No real spoilers involved in this story. It's obviously very AU as I totally made up Sam's family life. So nothing really spoilery in here. Be warned, this fic does deal with sensitive issues (child abuse, domestic violence and homophobia). It's not terribly graphic but it is mentioned and discussed by several characters.

**Disclaimer:** I in no way shape or form own _Glee_ despite my continued efforts because if I did Chord Overstreet would still be on the show. I do own Sam's brother Dean. But even that shtick is borrowed from _Supernatural_… which I also don't own.

**Author's Note:** Good morning, everyone! Happy Friday! I'm back with more interlude goodness for you. The first two are my usual pick on Puck flavors while the third one is a big ball of fluffy goodness. I hope you all enjoy!

**Update**: It's come to my attention that some readers are not happy with my characterization of some of the Supernatural characters. I just want to apologize again to those individuals. I also want to clarifiy that I'm not specifically saying that these characters are actually meant to be representing the characters from the show. The only characters in my story that are meant to represent someone from a television show would be the actual Glee people (and I seriously hope not because they're starting to become a bit unbearable this season, lol). So I just wanted to clarify that. I would never want to offend anyone. Anyway, enjoy!

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><p><strong>Moments F-H<strong>

* * *

><p><strong>Family Reunion <strong>

_Present. Puck was pretty used to family reunions sucking but this took it to a whole different level. In other words, the time Puck met the rest of the Evans family. _

When Noah Puckerman was seven years old, he met his maternal aunt for the first time (that he could remember) and his older cousins. The meeting did not go well. His cousins were mean and picked on him relentlessly. He ignored it for the most part. Nothing they said or did was worse than what his father could or would do. So he ignored them and kept to himself. But it was when they decided to pick on his barely three month old sister that Puck took offense. And somehow it all became his fault. His mother was furious. His aunt screamed that he was a bad seed. His father was too drunk to notice the drama at first but made sure to let Puck know his feelings on the subject afterwards. Needless to say, Puck developed a very strong aversion to family reunions.

Even the few times he accompanied the Berry family to local family reunions wasn't enough to shake his longstanding belief that family reunions just ended in tears and misery. Despite Leroy and Hiram being by far the most awesome parents he ever knew (though he would learn to fit Burt Hummel in that list because Burt was kind of the shit), they still had family that was less than accepting. It was hard watching two people he respected and looked up to as much as Leroy and Hiram struggle against their family's lack of acceptance. The last family reunion they attended was when Puck and Rachel were ten. But the damage was already done. Puck had a healthy fear of the words family reunion. Or family gathering. Really he feared the word family followed by anything but since becoming an Evans, he was slowly starting to readjust his feelings on the word. The idea of reunion still sucked though.

"Seriously, they're coming here?"

Puck turned his attention away from the guitar on his lap and in turn focused on Sam who was still standing in the center of their living room staring at their older brother as if he had grown two heads. Seeing as how he was currently trying to put a diaper on his daughter upside down, Puck thought that Sam was completely correct to give him that look. However, that was not what had Sam's panties in a twist.

"Yes, Sam," Dean huffed, struggling to readjust the diaper and hold the squirming Charlie down. "You heard the message. The whole freaking group is coming here. Apparently adding more than one family member in a year warrants a visit to make sure everything is on the up and up."

Sam groaned, flopping down on the couch beside Puck, who remained completely confused. "Is there something I should know about here?" he finally asked, after it became obvious that neither of them was going to address the situation or actually ask for help putting the diaper on correctly.

"This afternoon we got a call from our grandmother," Dean explained, still doing it wrong. "She's pretty excited about Sammy graduating and decided that she was going to invite herself to the graduation. Then Bella squealed and told her about you and Charlie and now she wants to stay for a 'couple of days'. And so does the rest of the damn crew."

"The rest of the crew?"

"Yeah, this is our dad's mom. Our mom was an only child and her parents died when she was pretty young. So we were all super close to our Grandma Deana. Yes, I'm named after her and if you laugh I will throw a dirty diaper at you." Puck snorted. "Anyway! Grandma had three kids: our aunt Ellen, our uncle Bobby and our dad, John."

"Aunt Ellen had two daughters, Joanna and Ruby, while Uncle Bobby adopted our cousin Bella," Sam continued. "Aunt Ellen and Ruby do not get along mostly because Ruby is a psychotic bitch. She lives with our grandmother now. And I almost had to live with them too if Dean hadn't saved me."

Puck smiled faintly at the flush he could see on Dean's bowed head. He unfolded his legs and leaned forward to better observe the oldest brother. "So all of them are coming here? Why?"

"Like I said, Bella squealed," Dean sighed. "I've been purposely avoiding telling Grandma that I pretty much adopted you because I knew that she was going to come here. But I made the mistake of telling Bella who probably wanted something from grandma and sold us out. Wait until she gets here."

Puck chewed on his lip hesitantly. A thought was forming in his mind that he never got a chance to voice as a stinging slap on the back of his head prevented him from going down that path. "Dude! What the hell?"

"Dean told me to," Sam shrugged with one shoulder.

"You're doing that thing where you think with your face. And what you're thinking is wrong. I didn't tell our grandmother about you being in the family because I know how they are. They're embarrassing and overbearing. Honestly, I could've gone a few more years without you having to be exposed to that madness. But here we are. In a matter of days, you're going to be fawned over, force fed and generally annoyed by the rest of your annoying family. It's going to be the family reunion from hell."

"On the bright side," Sam said, nudging Puck in the stomach. "You can always toss Charlie at them. They might rank baby over teenager in terms of cheek pinching."

Dean shot Sam a dirty look. "Have you seen Puck? I want to pinch his cheeks sometimes and I know that he'll bite my hands off if I do."

"Goddamn right I will," Puck muttered, hands flying to his cheeks. He sat quietly processing the overload (per the usual) of information that he just received. "So you said a matter of days… exactly how long is that?"

Dean finally gave up trying to put the diaper on (still doing it wrong by the way) and huffed. "Grandma said they'd be here by the end of the week. So most likely tomorrow."

"Grandma has a twisted sense of time," Sam added, twisting his lips. He raised an eyebrow. "Dean?"

"Yeah?"

"You think that you'll get a handle on Charlie's diaper thing by tomorrow? Because Grandma might have a problem with Charlie running around naked all the time."

Dean glanced down at the coffee table he was using as a changing table only to find that his very adorable daughter was very adorably naked and making a run for it. He growled, chasing after her with the diaper in his hand. Puck snorted, picking his guitar up again.

"You ok with this?"

"I don't really have a choice," he pointed out. "I mean you guys deserve to see your family. I wouldn't want you to feel that you couldn't."

"Dude, in case you're just slow, you're our family too. Hell, I consider you family more than Jo and Ruby. If you feel uncomfortable just tell Dean. He'll get rid of them."

Puck nodded, absently playing a tune. "I'll be fine. I promise to keep my issues on hold for at least a week. Who knows? It might actually be fun."

* * *

><p>He was wrong. He was totally wrong. That wasn't exactly an unfamiliar concept. He was pretty used to being wrong. But damn, he forgot what it felt like to be this spectacularly wrong. He really should've paid more attention to what Dean and Sam were saying. Although Puck was now aware that they both grossly underestimated just how annoying and tedious this whole affair would actually be in the long run. From the minute they arrived (the next day as Dean predicted), the majority of the female Evans family let it be known that they did not approve of Dean's decision to take in Puck.<p>

"Sweetheart, I know that you want to help Sammy's friends but now you have a daughter to think about."

"He is seriously the reason why you blew off Christmas? You knew that I wanted to introduce you to my boyfriend! You stayed here in Lima because his dad who he didn't even like died?"

"I don't know. He looks a little bit shady. You say he did time in juvie?"

Well, Ellen and Jo were pretty vocal about his presence being not exactly welcome. Ruby was too busy casing the house. Luckily, Dean had warned them to lock most of their valuables in the basement. Sam and Puck's guitars were locked up tight in their rooms. So at least that was a neutralized threat. Now he just had to deal with her sister and mother.

"You should really put some meat on those bones."

And let us not forget Grandma. From the minute she laid eyes on him, she was insisting that he was too thin. Puck never got that comment from anyone in the history of ever. Although he would admit that he had lost some weight during the course of their senior year but he didn't think it was quite as serious as she was making it seem. He definitely didn't think it warranted her trying to force feed him in between pinching her cheeks, clucking about his hair or wondering aloud why he seemed paler than in the pictures saw on Facebook.

And Sam was wrong too. Because he tried foisting Charlie on her several times. That distraction lasted about ten minutes before she was back to criticizing his weight, his hair, his everything. Between that, Jo's whining about his presence interfering with her quality cousin time and Ellen's complete disapproval of his existence, it was becoming increasingly more uncomfortable for him. But he didn't dare tell Dean.

He was already unpopular with Ellen and Jo. If he told Dean how he felt, he had no doubt that his brother would kick them out in a heartbeat which would only create more hostility and tension down the road. He wanted them to like him. He really did because he wanted to be a part of this family. But it was becoming increasingly clearer that he needed to be born an Evans in order to be accepted by them.

"I thought I might find you out here."

He raised an eyebrow as a very familiar notebook landed on his lap. He looked up to see a pair of smiling blue eyes looking down on him.

"You should be more careful where you hide things like that. You've got some good stuff in there. Wouldn't want to let it fall into the wrong hands. Though from what Dean tells me, you're good at doing that. You really let your ex best friend claim your song to win back his girlfriend who you were in love with? Twisted."

"Bella?"

The older woman sat down beside him, leaning against the tree. "I thought I told you to call me Belle. Ever since that damn Twilight movie came out, I've been totally ashamed of that name. I might even change it entirely. What do you think of Rose?"

"What are you doing out here? Shouldn't you be in there with the rest of your family?"

"I know what its like," she replied, seriously. "Remember I wasn't born an Evans either."

He glanced over at the woman. With her dark hair, blue eyes and remnants of an English accent, she definitely didn't resemble the rest of the family. Yet, he saw Ellen fawning over her when she first arrived after the rest of them. Bobby had torn his attention away from the bottle of bourbon he was nursing for the majority of the night to acknowledge her existence. She clearly was accepted. Bella tapped him on the knee.

"They accepted me because my father didn't give them a choice," she said, correctly reading the tension in his body. "Well my father and my uncle. They both put their foot down and refused to have anything to do with any of them if they didn't just accept that I was part of the family. Dad pretty much adopted me the same way Dean did with you."

"What, his nosey little brother found out you were getting your ass beat by your drunk father on a daily basis?"

"Essentially, yes," Bella grinned at the surprise on his face. "My biological sperm donor was a complete waste of flesh. He used to beat me, my mother and sister. One night, my mother decided she couldn't take it anymore and took off with my baby sister. She left me behind. And that bastard was merciless. I hated him. I would've sold my soul for him to feel just a fraction of the pain and misery he inflicted on me."

Puck was all too familiar with those feelings. He flashed back briefly to the conversation with Quinn after that failed intervention. It was easier for him to admit that he was angry now. It also helped hearing it from someone else. He couldn't imagine what he would've done if his mother had split with Sarah. She wasn't a supportive person but at least she was there.

"How did you wind up with Bobby?"

"Well, when I turned eleven, I couldn't take any longer. I decided I didn't want to be a victim anymore. So that night, while he was in the bathroom I put some sleeping pills in his drink. Looking back on it, I think I was hoping it would kill him. Unfortunately it wasn't anything worse than he willingly put in his body. So it only knocked him out. But I took advantage of it. I ran and I never looked back. It was my first time on my own, so I just looked for the closest place that looked like I could hide out. That's when I found the garage."

Puck remembered Sam telling him that his father and uncle ran a garage/salvage yard together when Dean was a kid. He had a fairly good idea of what garage Bella found. She smiled brightly and nodded.

"Uncle John was working that night. He was fixing up the car he got from his dad. He had this grand idea that he was going to give it to Dean when he got old enough to drive. Mind you, Dean was about six then. But Uncle John loved that car almost as much as he loved Sam, Dean and Aunt Mary. Anyway, he found me trying to break in that night. He tried to talk to me but I'm sure you know how well that went over. I ended up hiding just outside the shop. He left some food for me and didn't bother me the whole night. He did this every night for a week when finally my father stepped in."

"What did he do?"

Bella snorted. "He told me that I looked like a scrawny hobo living off the 'crime against humanity' that was his brother's cooking. He told me to come inside and get a good night's sleep and dinner. He even offered to sleep in the garage so that I would feel safe. But I actually trusted them. It helped that the sperm donor found out where I was hiding. He showed up and tried to make me go back home with him. Bobby threatened him with a shot gun while Uncle John just sat there cleaning his nails with a huge knife. Needless to say the sperm donor split and I've been with Bobby since then. He adopted me a year later."

"So you really are like me."

"Yes, I really am. I honestly had to experience the Ellen and Jo show. Aunt Ellen means well, she really does. But sometimes she's too overbearing for her own good. Jo is just a bloody whiner. She's always wanted to be the center of attention, especially after she figured out that Ruby never would. She really wanted to be the center of Dean's attention for some creepy reasons I'd rather not think about too long. Anyway, she' always idolized Dean and he's never really cared too much about her. I think she figured he didn't want to play with girls but then I came along. Then she figured he didn't want to be bothered with anyone younger and then Sam was born and he was the whole center of Dean's universe."

"So you're basically telling me to just deal with it?"

"Hell no," Bella laughed. "I'm telling you to man up and tell Dean that they're making you feel like shit. Dean is a lot more like his father than he thinks. If you tell him how you're feeling he will put a stop to their bitching and complaining. That's the only way they're going to realize that you're not going anywhere. It's what my dad had to do. They need drastic."

Puck nodded, lifting his legs up to his chest. "I just don't want to cause any problems."

Bella lifted her hand slowly, clearly giving him enough to move away if he wanted. He didn't mind though as she finally placed her hand on his head. Her fingers brushing through the hair of his Mohawk.

"I will never understand why boys have such soft hair," she grumbled. "It's such a waste."

"Like you've ever had a bad hair day," Puck countered.

"Hair this awesome takes a lot of work," Bella retorted, running her free hand through her shaggy brown locks. He gave her a tiny smile, which she returned. "Look, I know I said we're similar but we're also different. I got lucky. I got out of my hell when I was a kid. Kids are resilient little buggers. They bounce back pretty quickly with a few kind words and hugs. It gets harder as you get older. I don't know if I'd be the same person I am now if I was still living with my father at seventeen."

"Aren't you a professional thief?"

She rolled her eyes. "Dean is such an asshole. No, I'm not a thief. I work for a security firm that specializes in pinpointing the weaknesses in people's security systems and repairing those weaknesses."

"So… professional thief?"

Bella scoffed lightly. "God, you really are just like him. Sammy wasn't lying. I always knew Dean was a narcissist but adopting a kid that was just like him? That's a new one for even him."

"Is that a good thing?"

She leaned into his shoulder. "It's a very good thing." She smiled at him. "Us non blood related Evans got to stick together."

"So you like me?"

Bella snorted. "I guess. You're kind of likeable."

"I'm totally likeable."

"And you're talented." She nodded her head towards the notebook that was lying on the ground between them. "I meant it when I said you should keep a closer eye on that. Dean told me how you wrote the songs that won your little singing competition this year. Pretty impressive. You need to keep a closer eye on that book. ."

"Where did you even find this anyway? I thought I locked it in my room."

"So I may have done a few regrettable things in my day like teaching Ruby to pick locks," she caught her bottom lip between her teeth, shrugging helplessly. "I found that along with the fancy silverware in her suitcase. We'll probably have to do the full raid before we leave."

Puck shook his head, placing a hand on the book. "I really like them."

"I know you do. They really like you too. Trust me. You won't be ruining anything if you tell Dean that you're not ok with this. Hell, if I know Dean, he's probably halfway through kicking them out already."

Anything Puck was going to say was cut off by a loud crash and an increase in volume from the house. Bella's lips twisted. "Did I say halfway through?" she rose to her feet gracefully and held a hand out. "We should probably head back in now. The longer we stay out here, the closer we move towards the gun firing portion of the evening. I can live without that one."

Puck blinked. "Are all family reunions like this?"

"With this group? Please. It's not really a reunion until someone, Ruby, gets arrested."

He gave her his hand, allowing her to pull him to his feet. As they walked towards the back door he slipped through unnoticed an hour earlier, he could hear Dean yelling over the clamor of voices vying for his attention. As they entered the kitchen, he saw that Bobby had moved into the living room and appeared just as exasperated with the way things were going as Dean did. His brother was standing in the center of the living room and his eyes were boring holes in what Puck knew was Jo's direction. So nothing changed. Great.

"Ok, you know what, everyone shut the hell up!" Dean bellowed, suddenly. The constant chattering came to an abrupt stop. Even Charlie in her playpen stopped smacking her dolls together in time with the arguing. Bella made a murmur in agreement as she pushed Puck out of his latest hiding spot and into the living room. Dean caught his gaze immediately. "You ok?"

"Yeah, I'm ok," he replied. Sam left his post against the wall to stand beside him.

"Good," Dean nodded. "Alright, so here's the deal, Puck is here to stay. He's part of my family. You don't like it, I really don't care. You can accept it and shut the hell up or there's the door. Don't let it hit you on the way out. I don't really care what your opinions on this subject are. He's my brother as much as Sammy is. None of you even know him, so none of you get to judge him. Yes, he went to juvie but so did Ruby! And hell Ruby actively steals from all of us and she doesn't get nearly as much shit as you've given Puck in the two hours you've been here."

"Kid's got a point," Bobby spoke up. "El, you're acting ridiculous and you know it. If Dean is vouching for the kid, he's got to be worth something. The only other person I've seen him stick up for this much is his brother. And that's because Sam emotionally blackmailed him into it with the emo shoulder thing he does. I guess we should just be happy that it's just Sam that does that."

"Oh, Puck does it too," Dean commented, idly. "Wait until you see the puppy dog eyes."

"I saw them outside," Bella chimed in. "They are a sight to behold. I wanted to go in here and punch Jo in the face for him. Oh, wait no never mind, I frequently want to punch Jo in the face."

"What did I do?"

Bella arched an eyebrow. "What haven't you done?"

The two girls immediately started bickering with Ellen trying, and failing, to referee. Puck could only watch as the family descended into further chaos with Sam and Ruby getting in a screaming match over a shirt that was clearly not Ruby's that did in fact belong in Sam's closet. Dean was yelling at their grandmother, who was yelling right back but Puck was pretty sure they were having two entirely different arguments. Interesting.

"Welcome to the family, kid," a gruff voice said in his ear. He looked up at the only other person in the room not caught up in the screaming and yelling. Bobby grinned at his confusion. "This is normal for us. Half the damn time we don't get along. But it's probably better to let them get it out of their systems now."

Puck blinked. "You really think they want to welcome me to the family?"

"I don't think they really have a choice," Bobby chuckled. "Dean is pretty damn stubborn and he's unfortunately shared that trait with the other idjit. If he's serious about you, and I know he is, then you're as good as in. It takes awhile for my little sister to get her head out of her ass. She's got a lot of guilt going on."

"Guilt?"

"She feels like she should've stepped in to take Sam after Johnny and Mary died. But she didn't. So now she feels hyper protective of them. Too little, too late if you ask me. But most people don't." Puck nodded, unsure of how to respond to that one. "So how about you and I go outside and take a look at that truck of yours? It's pretty nice." Puck felt a smile growing. Now this he could deal with.

It would be a slow journey (and a very long week) but gradually the other Evans started to realize that Puck wasn't going anywhere. He had his long awaited moment of acceptance when he, Sam, Jo and Ruby were out for dinner at Breadstix and unfortunately ran into Finn. His former BFF was apparently still stinging from the unanimous save for one vote that he not be allowed to sing at Nationals in favor of Puck. He was especially pissy that they actually won. They didn't just place they actually won Nationals. This did not lead to a happy Finn Hudson. This, in turn, led Finn to act like an asshole and loudly insinuate that Puck was cheating on Rachel with the first "two bimbos" he could find. He went on further to imply that Rachel should've stayed with him as he was the "better man". Jo and Ruby chose that moment to intervene pointing out that they were family before verbally shredding Finn to pieces. Sam captured it on his phone for Santana later. .

A few minutes later, Puck watched as Finn struggled to pay for his order after Ruby liberated his wallet. She assured him that she would return it but that she really didn't like people picking on her family. Puck didn't even argue against it. He just sat back and enjoyed the feeling. Because he was willing to admit that he was wrong. Sometimes family reunions could actually be pretty kickass.

* * *

><p><strong>Gun<strong>

_Future. Dean's always dreaded those early morning/late night phone calls. They never end well. Especially when the person on the other line tells you that the club where Puck was working just got held up by a guy high off who even knew what and wielding a gun_.

Dean's phone was ringing. Ordinarily, this wouldn't be a problem. His phone was almost always ringing. Whether it be Sam or Puck checking in, Bella calling to bug him about some jerk she was dating, Santana to vent about how stupid his little brothers were or Rachel to tell him how amazing his little brothers were, Dean's phone was constantly ringing. But the problem right now was that his phone was ringing and it was almost two in the morning. He only got home about three hours ago. One of his clients had a crisis and he was stuck in the office trying to calm them down. So he was exhausted and fully prepared to enjoy his Charlie/brother free evening. So of course that meant that the goddamn phone was going to ring.

With a growl, his left hand shot out of the cocoon of blankets protecting him from the slight November chill and fumbled blindly for the object of his hatred. He already knew who it was since he preprogrammed ringtones for the repeat offenders. Made it easier to know who to bitch out for calling this damn early in the morning. Finally, his hand touched the cool plastic case and his arm retreated back into the warmth.

"This better be good, Puck, or I swear I'm going to hold you down and shave your head!" he grumbled into the phone. There was a slight pause and a very audible gulp. He almost felt good about that until he heard the person speak and it was very clearly not his brother's voice. "Hey, who the hell is this?"

"Uh, is this Dean?"

Dean sat up, sheet falling forgotten as that all too familiar feeling of fear and panic gripped his heart. "Yes, this is Dean. Who are you? And why do you have my brother's phone?"

"Uh, could you maybe stop yelling?"

Dean rolled his eyes. "Are you kidding me, dude? Who the hell is this?"

There was another pause as the phone exchanged hands. Another voice came on this time, and it was still not Puck. "Hey, Dean, right?"

"Yes, we've established that I'm Dean. I swear someone needs to tell me what's going on. Like right fucking now."

The voice laughed. "Yeah, you're pretty much exactly like he said you were. I'm Angelo. I run the Moonlit Club on 12th street. As you probably know, Noah plays here some nights."

Dean did know that. Angelo DeLaurentis was also a musical composition professor at NYU during the daytime hours. He took one look at Puck and his lyrics and decided to hire his brother to play a couple of nights out of the week at the bar. Unfortunately, Dean hadn't been able to make it to one of his performances yet but he kept promising that he was.

"Is everything ok?" he asked, hesitantly. "You're not calling because he got wasted or something, are you?"

Secretly Dean prayed that it was because his little brother got wasted but he knew that Puck didn't get drunk. The kid was almost obsessive about it. But drunk was a lot better than dead. God, he hoped the kid was just drunk.

"No," Angelo said, his voice heavy with regret and just a hint of something else. "Noah wasn't scheduled to play tonight but he came in anyway. He said he was having a bad night and needed to get away from school for a bit. So he came in and was helping Mario behind the bar. Don't worry, he wasn't drinking. Just mostly helping Mario serve the drinks and working the register."

Dean wasn't worried about that at all. Because he knew his little brother gave off an attitude of recklessness and immaturity but he was pretty much the most grounded teenager Dean ever met. He didn't blame Angelo for letting him work the bar but he did wonder what caused him to head there in the first place. And why was Angelo calling him from Puck's phone? Why wasn't Puck calling?

"Angelo, as much as I love this recap of Puck's night, can you please just tell me what's going on? Where is my brother?"

"Being checked over by paramedics."

That feeling just now? That was his heart dropping into his stomach. He was oddly familiar with the feeling but he just never wanted to associate the feeling with his brothers. Either of them.

"What… what happened?"

"We were closing up about an hour ago when some punk comes in and decides to hold up the place. I was in the back… I didn't hear a damn thing. But Noah and Mario were up front."

Dean was already out of bed, moving around his room in the dark to get dressed, before Angelo even got to the part about his being in the back. The rest of Angelo's words washed over him. He heard key phrases. Puck wasn't dead. He was alive. He was held at gunpoint by a guy that was tweaking off some combination of crystal meth and angel dust. Dean didn't really care. If he saw the guy, he was going to break every bone in his face. He was already out the door when he caught Angelo telling him the real reason he called.

"He's trying to tell the paramedics that he's fine to go home. But he's not fine. I know the kid when he's fine. He's really shook up right now."

"Tell him to keep his scrawny ass there," Dean growled into the phone. "I'm on my way. I should be there in about half an hour. Tell him I will dye all his clothes pink and let Charlie braid his hair if moves."

Angelo let out a startled but amused laugh. "Yeah, you're definitely Noah's brother. I shall relay the message. See you in a half."

Dean hung up quickly, starting his car in the process. Once he was pulling out of the building's garage, he dialed Sam's number. Because where the hell was Sam with all of this going on? The one thing he loved about his little brothers was that it was relatively easy to find them. You find one, you find the other. Except apparently when one of them was getting mugged at work. Sam picked up on the fourth ring with a tired whine.

"Look, I already left him like ten voicemails saying how sorry I am."

"What?"

"You're calling cuz Puck finally told you why he came over there, right? He left here about four hours ago. Given how pissed he was, I thought it would take this long to get him to tell you about what was going on." Sam stopped for a moment. "That is why you're calling… isn't it?"

Dean barely got the whole story out before he could hear Sam stumbling around their dorm room, promising to meet him there. He hung up satisfied that if his threats didn't work then the human guilt factory that was Sam would keep the clearly reluctant Puck there. Less than twenty minutes later, he was pulling up to the club grateful for the lack of traffic on the streets and the awesome parking.

Though he had never been to club before, it wasn't hard to figure out where it was. It was the one with all the police cars and ambulances parked out front. A crowd of spectators had gathered around to watch the chaos. Dean was very seriously considering body checking a few of them when he spotted a familiar face. Elliot Novak was an officer he had the honor of working with a few times with his more rowdy clients. He whistled attracting the man's attention.

"Hey, what brings you down here?"

"The kid in there is my brother."

Elliot winced. "The tweaker?"

"Oh, hell no, the one working the bar."

"Not the one that pissed himself."

Dean blinked. He loved Puck but he wasn't quite sure how to answer that one. Then again this was Puck. Puck was his brother which meant that he loved and accepted him no matter what. But seriously? "He peed on himself?"

"Yeah," Elliot tried to fight back a smile. "I mean getting a gun held to your face can be pretty scary. Although the kid with the Mohawk seemed to handle the situation pretty well. If being a total smartass and attracting all the attention, getting pistol whipped and knocked can be called pretty well."

"He did what?"

"Oh, so it's Mohawk that's the brother," Elliot nodded. "Then I'm guessing the blonde that showed up about ten minutes ago is the other half of the younger brother duo."

"Yeah, Sam and Noah," Dean ran a hand through his hair, trying to peer through all the police and EMTs walking around. Elliot finally took mercy on him and pulled him through the gawking crowd and into the building. From there it was only a matter of listening to find his brothers.

"'m nineteen! Can leave if I wanna!"

"Dean said you have to stay."

"I don't wanna stay. 'M fine. Wanna go 'ome Sammy."

"Well the fact that you haven't managed to get through one sentence without slurring just says that no, you're not fine. And oh my god! Don't use the eyes! Holy crap its worse when you look like that."

Dean snorted, drifting closer to the scene. It would've been comical if not for the fact that Dean knew exactly why Puck was clutching Sam's arm like it was the only thing keeping him from falling off the bar stool. Although it wasn't hard for everyone to see why what with the ten or so butterfly bandages that were currently keeping Puck's bleeding head wound closed. Puck was covered in one of those horribly loud orange blankets that were used to prevent shock. Judging by the shades lighter skin, trembling hands, and wide hazel eyes searching the place warily, Dean had a feeling they were too late on that one. Still, Puck's eyes kept darting around the room expectantly. Finally, they landed on Dean and the tension in his body released. It was like popping a balloon.

"What did you get yourself into this time?" he murmured as he finally approached the pair. He cupped Puck's chin lightly, wincing at the bruising already starting to form on his face. "Anyone ever tell you not to mouth off to a guy with a gun?"

Puck smiled faintly, his eyes fluttering. "He was going after Mario."

Dean glanced further down the bar, which smelled disturbingly like urine and blood. A young man wrapped in his own blanket was being talked to by police officers, Elliot among them. He assumed that was the oft mentioned Mario. He looked like he could barely fight his way out of a paper bag. With his slight frame, huge eyes and pale skin, he reminded Dean of Kurt. And that would totally explain why Puck felt the need to deflect the gun pointing drug addict away from him.

"They want you to go to the hospital?" Dean asked, looking to Puck.

"Yeah," he said, reluctantly. One eye opened lazily. The normally expressive arrangement of green, brown and gold was clouded over leaving a dull mossy color. Well that wasn't good. "'m fine, De."

"Right," Dean smiled indulgently. He glanced up at hovering paramedic. "How long was he unconscious for?"

"According to the boss man back there about ten minutes," the paramedic reported. "He's got a pretty nasty concussion but he won't let us take him in for more testing. Keeps saying he'll sign out AMA."

"No more television for you," Dean warned. He shook his head. "Look, I'm his legal guardian and his next of kin. I'm saying that you have full permission to take him in and run as many tests as you need to. He's concussed meaning he's incapable of making properly informed decisions at the moment." The paramedic nodded in agreement.

"Hey!" Puck protested, voicing slurring heavily. He slid further off the stool. Dean was reasonably sure that Sam was holding him up more than that stool was. But he also knew that whatever Sam might have said that caused Puck to leave their dorm that evening was enough to ensure that Sam would hold him up with no complaints.

"Hey, nothing, brat. You're going to the hospital. I'm going to ride with you. Sammy is going to get his emo out of his system and meet us there. Ok?"

Puck didn't reply. The one eye just slid close completely and he went disturbingly limp against Sam. The paramedic, Eddie according to his name tag, stepped forward pressing two fingers against his neck.

"Steady pulse," he said. "Kid's just in shock. We'll take him in now. If you're riding with him then you better hurry up."

Dean barely had enough time to press his keys into Sam's shaky hands, assure his brother that everything would be fine, and point him in the direction of the car before he was whisked away in the ambulance with Puck. Three hours and a whole lot of testing and Sam's frantic apologies later, Dean was sitting in a chair beside the sleeping Puck's bed. Sam was on the other side of the bed with his head resting on his folded up arms next to Puck's head. It was a Kodak moment but Dean wasn't really in the mood to mock (enjoy) the adorableness that was his kid brothers. He was too busy obsessing over what could've happened. He could've lost them both. He wasn't naïve enough to think that Sam wouldn't have found some way to pin this on himself and that would've been the end of Sam as well.

He heard a slight moan and Puck shifted in the bed. His eyes immediately flew up to meet Puck's bruised eyes. He lifted a hand up to brush against drooping hair of his Mohawk.

"You're thinking too loud," Puck mumbled. "Givin' me a headache."

"No, I think that would be getting hit over the head with the butt of a gun."

"Eh, not a big deal."

Dean fought the urge to explode. First off it wouldn't help Puck's splitting headache. It also wouldn't help to wake Sam up again. Lord knows they both had enough of his damn apologizing. So instead, Dean leaned closer to Puck.

"Are you out of your damn mind? There was a guy with a gun, Puck! A drugged out of his mind, high as a kite man with a gun pointed at you. How are you acting like this just another day?"

"'s not the first time," Puck shrugged with one shoulder. "Different this time. Least he didn't fire it."

Dean opened his mouth to reply before he really thought about what Puck was saying. Not the first time? He didn't have the best opinion of Puck's father as it was. Any man that could systematically beat his child was pretty much not worth the effort of trying to form a positive opinion about. He really had an even lower opinion of his mother for letting it happen and doing nothing to stop it. But this? This was a whole different scenario. He actually pointed a gun at him. A goddamn gun at his son? And fired. Dean never in his life wanted to dig up a dead man more than he did in that moment.

"De?"

The red faded away as he remembered he was holding onto Puck's very sore and battered head. He let go gently, folding his hands on his lap. He met Puck's gaze and found there was no further signs of the fear that he saw back at the club. He was calm. He felt safe.

"You were looking for your father back there, weren't you?"

"Yeah," Puck admitted reluctantly. "I think my head got scrambled."

"How can you tell?"

Puck narrowed his eyes, wincing when it pulled on his stitched forehead. "I'm telling Bobby you were mocking me."

Dean rolled his eyes. "So your head got scrambled and you forgot the bastard was dead? Why'd you calm down?"

"That's obvious."

"Is it now?"

"You were there."

His heart which had rested firmly in his stomach since he first heard that Puck was in trouble finally felt lighter. He felt it lifting back to where it belonged. He knew that Puck trusted him. He knew that Puck opened up to him and Sam in ways that he never opened up before but to know that he trusted him that implicitly. That he knew even with a concussion that Dean would keep him safe from the literal monster of his imagination made him feel all warm and fuzzy inside. He knew there was a reason he kept the little monsters around.

"By the way, what happened to the guy?"

"Oh, him? Angelo finally heard what was going on around the time you got pistol whipped. After you went down, Mario apparently had a rather unfortunate response to his fear which distracted the tweaker long enough for Angelo to bash him over the head with a bottle of Jack Daniels."

"That's the good stuff!"

"Don't worry. He's taking it out of Mario's pay. Mario should've spent a little less time staring at you and a little more time locking the damn door last night."

Puck leaned his head further back against the pillows. "Can't help it that I'm hot."

Dean snorted, letting his hand rest over Puck's. He felt the curl of fingers against his palm and smiled. "I need you to take care of yourself, brat. I've gotten used to you."

"I can't promise that I won't try to help someone," Puck protested.

"Oh, I forgot to tell you. I had to text Quinn and Santana to let them know that they needed to watch Charlie a little longer than expected. Naturally they wanted to know why. Naturally they told Rachel why. The only reason she's not here right now is because she has to meet with her advisor at Julliard to plan out her classes. Otherwise she'd be here. But on a bright side, she told me to tell you that if you ever do something this stupid again, she will personally rip your balls off and feed them to you."

"You're giving me your interpretation of that, aren't you?"

"No, I was actually paraphrasing. There was a lot of interesting comments about flaying you alive and possibly beating you but I figured you'd get the gist from that bit."

"I hate you," he muttered.

"No, no you don't." Dean squeezed his hand lightly. "I don't hate you either."

Puck smiled faintly, closing his eyes again. "I'll try to be more careful."

"That's all I ask." He sat back as Puck fell asleep once again. Dean felt his own eyes grow heavy. He fell into a restful sleep full of awesome dreams of a world where Elijah and Debra Puckerman were never allowed to ruin their son's life. A world where Sam and Puck grew up together and neither of them was damaged or broken. It was a nice dream but Dean was pretty comfortable with his reality.

* * *

><p><strong>Home<strong>

_Future. Dean really never gave much thought to the idea of home being where the heart is. But after arriving home to his empty, boring apartment, he may be a little more mindful of it in the future. _

There is a saying that goes, "home is where the heart is". Dean Evans could care less about where his heart is (in his chest thank you very much) but he did give a good damn about where his bed was. His bed with its ultra soft sheets, firm mattress and awesome pillows. His bed which was the total opposite of the monstrosity that the hotel in Binghamton called a bed. He was looking forward to actually sitting down on a real sofa and watching a television that picked up more than two channels, none of which would be the competitive folk dancing channel. More importantly he was looking forward to actually kicking back and having a beer. He still wasn't sure how these conferences always ended up being in some backwater town that didn't serve alcohol (and looked at you as if you were a terrorist for thinking about asking about alcohol) and always had the crappiest hotels. They had to plan this crap.

But it was all in the past and he could already feel normalcy settling in as he shuffled towards his apartment. It was a very long week and lord knows he missed this damn place. As he opened the door, he smiled faintly at the Glade plug-in smell. Lily insisted on leaving the thing in to decrease the amount of smells that came from having a dog, a teenage girl and two boys. Not to mention the scary amount of former gleeks that still liked to drop in every now and then. He blamed his brothers. They almost always showed up with one of them. And they almost always showed up. Except for now. As he walked through the front door, he was more than a little disturbed to find the apartment was completely empty. Not a trace of a single living soul, not even the dogs.

"Hello?" his voice echoed around the apartment. That never happened. Normally, he would surprised if even heard his voice over the usual sounds of Lily and Charlie talking about their day, Ben trying to show him something or Alec just being… Alec. But now there was nothing.

He walked into his room and dropped his bag on his side of the room. The bed was neatly made up, proving that only his wife was sleeping there this week. Normally he left his side hastily made up. He never really saw the point of making it up when you were going to get right back in it. So in protest Lily would make her side up and ignore his side. But when he was gone, she always made the whole thing up. She claimed she was enjoying the peace and stability of not having a messy husband. He knew she missed him. With a groan, he sank down on his bed, expecting to revel in the comfort. He was sorely disappointed.

Yes, it was more comfortable than that crap he slept in all week but it was cold and empty. He rolled his side, staring at the crisp linen sheets that were tucked in with the pillows in their proper location. He missed the warmth of his wife lying next to him. He missed waking up cold because Lily was a bed hog who claimed all the sheets. He sighed, pushing himself off the bed. Well, that was a bust. But there was still the television.

He sauntered back in the living room and turned on the big screen television that was a gift from Puck with his first royalty check. He was honestly just proud of the kid for writing a Grammy award wining song. He didn't need the flashy present but he did greatly appreciate it. He headed into the kitchen to get a beer before flopping back on the sofa. They had all the cable channels and pay-per-view but five minutes later, Dean was bored. His beer sat on the table forgotten as he continued to pass through all one thousand channels once again. There was nothing that he wanted to watch on TV. Normally at this point, he would have at least five different suggestions about what to watch and that was usually just from Alec. Ben would want to watch some historical documentary. Charlie would want to watch some Disney channel nonsense. Lily would watch _Law & Order_ to talk about how they're doing it wrong. Puck would suggest watching music videos to talk about how they're doing it wrong. Sam would just back whatever Puck wanted to watch but lately had developed a disturbing addiction to Spongebob. Too much time spent with Alec.

Dean tossed the remote to the side when he found himself flickering through the channels for the fourth time. There was nothing on television and his beer tasted like crap. Maybe it was because he spent so much time hyping it up in his mind. Maybe the reality wasn't living up to the fantasy that he built in his head this week. Or maybe, just maybe….

"Daddy!"

He sat up in time to be bombarded with the one hundred pounds of gangly flesh that was his fourteen year old daughter. Her arms wound tight around his neck as he struggled to sit up. He heard a familiar chuckle followed by barking.

"Shut up, Daisy," Sam muttered to their dog, who was sitting behind the sofa with her ears down. "You're just mad because she got there first."

"Taunting a dog, Sammy?" Puck commented, perching on the back of the sofa. He leaned forward and stole Dean's beer. "Dude, this crap is warm. Beer is meant to be consumed not left to rot on a coffee table!"

"So says the guy that's not drinking because his wife can't drink."

"Your lips are moving but all I'm hearing is 'blah, blah, blah', "Puck retorted, taking a sip of the beer. His lips twisted in a grimace before he handed it to Sam, who also took a swig. He frowned, holding the beer back out to Puck.

"That's seriously gross."

"Then why are you two drinking it?" Dean finally asked.

"Because it's yours," Puck shrugged.

"Can I have some?" Charlie asked, sitting up straight.

"No!"

"Party poopers," she muttered, sinking back into Dean's embrace. "Anyway, glad you're home, daddy. I have so much to tell you! My stupid science teacher gave me detention today!"

"Her 'stupid science teacher' gave her detention because she decided to tell all the other students in the class that his nickname is Trouty Mouth!"

Dean snickered, looking down at his daughter. "Really, Charlie?"

"What? One of the girls in my group said that the frog we were dissecting had a mouth like Uncle Sam. So I just mentioned that his nickname was Trouty Mouth. It is not my fault that the other students started calling him Mr. Trouty Mouth after that."

Puck laughed this time. "It's also not her fault that he actually answered to it. That's when he gave her the detention by the way."

"Sammy, abusing power much?"

Sam rolled his eyes. "Right, because the detention was such a threat. She spent most of that whining to Puck on the phone in my office before he decided that 'detention was for losers' and forced both of us to leave early. There is still a half an hour left in detention."

"You really lost a lot of cool points when you became a teacher," Puck replied, patting his brother on the shoulder. "So, Dean! Did I tell you I just got a call to write a song for Tiffany Young?"

"The chick from that Disney crap?"

"Yup!" Puck beamed. "Her people called my people and set it up. One day you'll see my song on some crappy Disney show."

Charlie lifted her head to glare at her uncle. "I take it back Uncle Sammy. You're my favorite uncle again."

"It's so easy to win your affections," Sam chuckled.

Dean laughed at the bickering and bantering between his daughter and brothers. Absently he reached for the beer when Sam handed it to him. He took a sip, and though it was warm and more than a little gross, he found that it tasted like how it always did. It never occurred to him that he was too used to sharing beers with his brothers.

Before he could even think about sharing that revelation, the front door opened once again. A very exasperated Lily followed by a mournful looking set of little boys walked through surprised to see the four people gathered on the sofa.

"Wait, I thought Charlie had detention. How is she home already?"

"She had to detention with Sam," Puck snorted. "I figured she could serve that detention as well at home. All she needed was Sam, so Daisy and I kidnapped them both."

"Can you kidnap me?" Alec muttered under his breath.

"Do they even give detention in the second grade?"

"If they do, Alec will be the one to find out," Lily ruffled their son's light brown hair gently. "Why don't you tell your daddy and uncles what you've been up to today?"

Alec sighed with the all the long suffering patience an eight year old could muster. "Today, Ms. Logan ignored Benji when he told her that stupid Billy was pulling his hair. So threw the glue bottle at him. She noticed that!"

Dean groaned before looking at the older of the twins. "And Ben, how did you react to that?"

"I told her that Billy was obviously her favorite because she was screwing his dad," Ben shrugged. "It's true though."

"And I got a phone call telling me the boys were being disruptive in class," Lily finished. "I hate that school, Dean. We need to transfer them before I'm tempted to follow Santana's advice and burn that place down."

Dean shook his head. "Alright, we'll work on this week. And for the record, following advice given by Santana is never a good idea. Please just remember Puck's bachelor party where they got arrested in Mexico!"

Lily frowned thoughtfully. "I still want to know what the hell you two were trying to do with that donkey."

"Me too," Puck murmured. Dean rolled his eyes.

From there it was a symphony of noise. Alec noticed the television was on and insisted that they watch the latest SpongeBob episode. Ben wanted to watch a documentary per the usual. They ultimately settled for watching some show about real stories from the ER. He didn't know whether to be happy that his children were taking an interest in science or worried about the fact that Alec kept muttering about making genetically engineered soldiers. His youngest child was a bit too smart for his own good.

He settled back on the sofa that was now overcrowded. Charlie was still lying across his lap with Alec on top of her. Lily was beside them with Ben on her lap. Puck and Sam were seated on the floor also watching television. He finally relaxed feeling comfortable in his apartment for the first time since he arrived home. And that's when he realized there was more to that saying after all. Home is where the heart is. And these people were most definitely his heart. Man, he was such a sap.

* * *

><p>*I hope you all enjoyed. Have a great weekend!<p> 


	11. Moment I

"The Totally Not Dorky but Awesome and Badass Bromantic Tales of the Puckerone and Trouty Mouth"

**Summary:** Life is simply a series of interconnected moments that guide us along. Here are some of the moments in the collective lives of the Evans family.

**Pairings:** Samtana, Puckleberry, Bartie, Klaine, Chang-squared and Wemma. Past Finnchel. Sack, Pucktana, Pezberry and Plaine friendships

**Warnings:** No real spoilers involved in this story. It's obviously very AU as I totally made up Sam's family life. So nothing really spoilery in here. Be warned, this fic does deal with sensitive issues (child abuse, domestic violence and homophobia). It's not terribly graphic but it is mentioned and discussed by several characters. Any resemblance any character in this story may bear to someone from _Supernatural_ is very much intended.

**Disclaimer:** I in no way shape or form own _Glee_ despite my continued efforts because if I did Chord Overstreet would still be on the show. I do own Sam's brother Dean. But even that shtick is borrowed from _Supernatural_… which I also don't own. I also nothing from _Suits_. There is a tiny crossover here that I doubt anyone important (hi, USA lawyers) would notice.

**Author's Note:** Good morning, everyone! This is a little difference in that there is only one piece to this one. I got stuck on the other ones yet again. Just wanted to post something _Glee_. My brain has been buzzing off Avengers. Really hard to get back into _Glee_ mode. But it's coming along. Should be updating this and _Living for the First Time_ soon. Take care. Hope you enjoy.

* * *

><p>Moment I<p>

**Inspiration **

Dean shuffled towards his front door slowly and not without a fair amount of annoyance on his features. He didn't know who it was exactly but seeing as they woke him from the best sleep he'd had in months, he hated them. He had a fairly good idea about who it was. He knew it was a gleek. They were the only ones that insisted on bothering him on his days off. They were also the only ones that knew when he had a damn day off for the express purpose of bothering him. He also knew it wasn't Matt, Mike, or Artie as he finally managed to foist his crazy annoying little brothers and their equally as annoying friends on his very beautiful, and recently accepted into the family, girlfriend. They were currently bugging the hell out of Lily at her job. Better her than me, he thought a little unfairly. He loved the woman but he really didn't want to deal with five teenage males on a day without classes. He really wasn't sure how he became the designated go to person for the displaced gleeks but he had a feeling that it had to do with him being the only familiar adult in NYC other than the Berry's. And apparently he was more fun to bother than Hiram and Leroy. The gleeks were turning more sadistic with age. He was both proud of that and annoyed that they were using it against him.

The doorbell rang again prompting him to grumble loudly. Thus far the ringing wasn't obnoxious so it wasn't Blaine either. Rachel had a key and Santana liked to pretend she didn't remember Dean giving her one on their first day in the apartment. There were plenty of times he woke to the sounds of her picking the lock. She claimed she was testing his reflexes and reaction times. Really, Dean was of the belief that the woman just enjoyed giving him gray hairs.

He finally reached the door and flung it open only to come face to face with the one gleek he wasn't really expecting. He had nothing against Tina. He thought she was pretty cool the few times that she hung out with the boys. But she wasn't one of the normal crew that refused to leave (i.e. Matt, Mike, Artie, Blaine, Rachel, Quinn and Santana). He knew that his face must've reflected his confusion as she giggled a little.

"Hey, Tina," he finally managed to say, stepping to the side to let her in. "Everything ok?"

"Yeah," she nodded, walking into the living room. She sat down on the arm of what was unequivocally Dean's chair. "I just wanted to show you something."

He raised an eyebrow but sat down in his chair next to her. She reached into her bag and pulled out a CD case. She held the case out to him. He realized this was the project she and Quinn were bitching about the week before. On the corner of the cover slip was a big 'A'. "Hey, congrats, Tina!"

She flushed but shook her head. "That's not what I wanted to show you. This is my final for my video journalism class. We're supposed to interview someone that inspires us on what inspires them. So I picked the most inspirational of my friends."

When she didn't elaborate further, Dean let his eyes drift towards the title. He felt his heart skip a beat or two with pride. _My Inspiration: From Puck to Noah_. "You interviewed Puck?"

"After everything he's been through in his past… life," Tina's face darkened a little, no doubt in long misplaced guilt about not seeing through Puck's façade that everything was great. Dean knew that she wasn't the only one who still had those moments, his own brother included. But he knew they were all getting better at it as evidenced by the fact that she was able to shake it off a minute later. "Anyway, I picked him because he's been through so much and he's still able to keep his head up. He hasn't let it break him. At any rate, I figured he should start getting used to the whole idea of interviews anyway since it's only a matter of time before someone catches on to what we all know."

"And that is?"

"That he's going to be huge," Tina replied, with a casual shrug.

Dean nodded his head, clearing his throat. "So let me guess he picked Rachel for his inspiration, didn't he?"

"You might be surprised as to what he picked as his inspiration. Although, in retrospect, I'm really not," Tina shrugged, shouldering her bag. "I'll see you later, Dean. I have a study session with Quinn and San for our math final. Quinn's been taking lessons from Rachel on how to be an anal retentive Nazi. She's got poster boards and highlighters!"

Dean snorted, walking her back to the door. "You forgot your disc."

"That's yours," she smiled. "It's the unedited version by the way."

His brow furrowed as the Goth went skipping down the hall to the stairwell. It was common knowledge that the elevator in their building was not to be trusted. One day he'd move into a nicer apartment but for now it was the best he could do. He walked over to the window of his building, waiting until he saw Tina outside walking down the stairs. She gave him a little wave before she was gone. He was completely confused. His eyes landed on the case still in his hand. With a shrug, and a lack of anything better to do with a relatively empty house and sleeping toddler, he placed the DVD in and sank back on the couch.

The video opened up on what he realized was Sam and Puck's dorm room. He could tell by the almost obnoxious amount of posters plastered across the room. Neither of them knew which poster belonged to which boy. And they didn't care. Tina was currently sitting in front of a _Boondock Saints_ poster from the first movie. So she was on Sam's side of the room.

"_Hello, my name is Tina Cohen-Chang. This is my final for Professor Oliver's Video Journalism class. We were asked to pick what inspires us. And I know it's not the most natural choice but I picked my friend, Puck. Well, actually he's almost like a cousin in law at this point."_

There was a soft huff of laughter from the other side of the room that Dean knew was Puck. His lips curved in a smile of his own.

"_Stop laughing. It's true. I picked Puck because despite the fact that he's been through what totally appears to be a Law & Order: SVU episode, he's still a positive person. He's currently studying musical composition at NYU and lives in this very room. So, please welcome Noah Puckerman-Evans. Or Puck, to those that don't know him."_

The camera panned left and suddenly his brother was on camera. He was sitting facing Tina on his own bed. He could tell that Puck was trying to appear relaxed but he could read the kid's body language better than that. He was nervous. It was almost adorable. Hazel eyes met the camera almost hesitantly.

"_So why am I doing this again?" _

"_Because," Tina's exasperated voice sounded. "You totally inspire people with your lyrics. Not just me, but a lot of the other gleeks too. So what inspires you?" _

_Puck's brow furrowed. "What inspires me?" _

"_Yeah, like what makes you tick?"_

_Puck fidgeted on the bed. "I guess…. You're going to edit this, right?" _

"_Of course. I'll show it to you first." _

_He heaved a sigh and shifted upright. "Ok then, you remember my dad, right?" _

"_Pretend that I don't." _

"_Oh, right. Well, the thing is my fath… my dad… the sperm donor… he used to hit me a lot because… well, I still don't know, really. Anyway, he was a drunk and a really mean one at that. He split when I was eight but my mom blamed me for it. She thought if I was better then he would've stayed. After awhile I started thinking that too. After awhile I started thinking that maybe if I wasn't around… things would be…. Better." _

Dean swallowed the lump growing in his throat. This wasn't new information. He knew this but to hear it said so candidly was intense.

"_Anyway, I thought about it. A lot. When I was fourteen, I stopped thinking and just did it. I had it all planned out. My mother was supposed to come home for her lunch break that day. I knew she'd be the one to find…. Me. I figured that served her right. So an hour before she was supposed to get there… I went to my room… and I sliced my wrist." _

_Tina let out a shaky breath. "You're still here. So what happened?" _

"_My mom decided to work through her lunch break so she never came home. But Sarah, my kid sister, she came home early from camp…. She was sick or something. I couldn't let her see that. I… never wanted her to know what I felt. So I wrapped up my arm, dropped her off at a neighbor's house and took a taxi to the hospital. I told them I cut myself making lunch." Puck laughed darkly and without even a hint of humor in his voice. "They believed me too." _

_The fingers on his right hand absently traced a very specific pattern on his left arm. "I never tried again. Never really thought about it seriously again… until he came back. He promised to change and at first he did. He was better than before. I guess you can teach old dogs new tricks. But you can't make an abusive douchebag change his ways. One morning he actually whipped me with his goddamn belt. That was the day I just couldn't take it anymore. I was fucking up in school. I was pushing everyone away. I actually yelled at Brittany, who is probably the sweetest most awesome person in the world. And I yelled at her. That's when I just said I can't do this anymore. I don't want to do this anymore. The world would be better without Noah Puckerman." _

"_Puck… you know that's not true." _

There was a brief pause before Puck's eyes drifted to the camera, and the Goth behind it, smiling. It was one of those rare smiles where his eyes lit up.

"_Duh, we're talking about the past, Hello Kitty," he laughed when an action figure went flying past his head. "I'm so telling Sammy you threw his Ewok at me." _

"_Get on with it," Tina huffed. _

_Puck nodded, the smile only somewhat lessening. "When I got home from school, he started going in on me. I don't even remember what we were arguing about to be honest. Could've been anything. Maybe he didn't like my shirt or I was too loud coming home. But it was something that about me that pissed him off. He tried to hit me and I walked away. That's when I made the decision. I was going to end it that night. I stormed out the house but he followed me. He actually hit me in the front yard. I was trying to get back up to make it to my truck when all of a sudden there was this wall between me and him. A wall named Sam." _

"_That was the night Sam went to your house because he thought something was wrong with you." _

"_Yeah, creepy little weirdo started tracking my behavior and figured out that I wasn't acting 'normal' or whatever. He was there and he pulled me away from my dad. He helped me get away that night and I never had to go back." _

"_So Sam is your inspiration?" _

"_You'd think but no. Don't get me wrong. Sam is… pretty damn important. But my inspiration is a little more than that. I guess when I hear inspiration, I think of the reason I get up in the morning. The reason I can write songs. The reason I bust my ass to keep my grades up. The reason I try and smile at least once a day." _

"_Oh, so it's Rachel," Tina said in a sing song tone. _

_The Ewok sailed towards the camera prompting the camera woman to protest loudly. Puck snorted. "No, it's not Rachel. It's the one person that made all that stuff possible. The person that believed in me enough to actually make me believe." His lips curved into a smile. "My inspiration is my big brother, Dean."_

Dean was glad that he was alone and no one was around to witness his jaw dropping open dramatically even as a familiar stinging formed in his eyes. Him? Puck actually picked him? Over Rachel and Sam?

"_It would be easy to pick Sammy or Rachel," Puck continued as if he was hearing his brother's thoughts. "Sam saved me that night and Rachel saves me every day. But Dean… he is the reason I'm still here. He's the one that took all that metaphorical shit and made it real. Wait, can I say shit?" _

Tina's voice assured him that he could say whatever he wanted even as Dean snorted. Leave it to Puck to wonder about his language while bearing his soul. Kid didn't worry about it any other day of the week.

"_So yeah, Sam said we're brothers but Dean made it true in more than just words. Rachel, her dads and the two they've practically adopted along the way, showed me that family doesn't always mean violence, hurt and pain. But Dean… he adopted me. He made me part of his family. He threatened to cut his actual family out of his life if they didn't learn to accept me. He didn't need to do any of that. I was just his little brother's damaged good friend but he looked past all that." _

Dean was definitely glad he was alone. He didn't need to hear the teasing from anyone later that he was crying a little. But seriously, how could he not? He knew that he meant a lot to Puck but this… he actually really did appreciate everything.

"_Dean didn't need to do any of that," Puck continued. "Before his parents died, he was just this regular guy, dating a pretty hot chick and living his life. Then he decides to raise his little brother. A year later, he's taking in me too and going out of his way to make me understand that I had a family that cared. That I was… safe. And that means more to me than I can ever really express. So yeah, that's my inspiration… my brother." _

The video continued to play as Tina asked more questions about everything from the first time he met Dean to his favorite color. As they moved away from the heavier topic, Dean found his attention drifting as well. Puck never ceased to amaze him. He gently wiped away any evidence of tears and finished the video. By the end Puck was completely relaxed and comfortable talking to the camera. Dean realized in that moment that Tina was a genius. Puck was going to be big. He was special. And he was his little brother/foster son.

He felt more than saw someone sit on the arm of the chair where Tina originally was sitting. He didn't question how the hell Puck got back in the apartment without Dean noticing but he just concluded Mike was giving out ninja lessons again.

"What did you think?" he asked, looking at Dean.

"I think," Dean started, smiling slowly. "I think Tina was right. You're pretty inspiring. And the record, I didn't have to do those things, you're absolutely correct. I wanted to do it. I knew that all you needed was someone to remind you that you could do it." He shrugged. "Besides I know the others would come around."

He really did know that. For all the difference he had with his cousins sometimes, he knew that they took family just as seriously as he did. Once she got past the initial reluctance to accept him, Jo became one of Puck's biggest supporters. They even had inside jokes that none of them were privy too. It just showed how much the kid was a part of his world.

"Thanks, Dean."

Dean reached to ruffle Puck's hair, playfully. "None necessary, brat. This is a two way street. I got something out of this too, you know."

"Oh, yeah?"

"Yeah, I fully expect a ridiculously expensive gift with your first paycheck."

Puck snorted. "I got you, bro."

Dean elbowed him, chuckling. "So how was Lily when you left the others?"

"I don't think apocalyptic can quite cover it," Puck smirked. "She's about ready to shove a stapler up Chang's noise. She already sent Sammy and Matt into Louis' office. Really the only one not irking her is Artie and that's just because he's too busy building that crazy robot thing." At Dean's pointedly confused look, Puck shook his head. "It's probably best you don't know about that one."

He wanted to protest but Puck was probably right. He shook it off though in favor of looking at the clock if Lily had already resorted to sending them to her slimy coworker than it would only be a matter of an hour or so before they showed up like the slightly tarnished (never bad) pennies they were. And true to his prediction, the four teens barged into the apartment midway through _Ironman_ wearing identical grins. Matt and Mike settled down, each taking over the narrative of their fun filled afternoon of torturing someone other than Dean while Artie and Sam argued with Puck about restarting a movie they've all seen at least fifty times (at least!). Dean couldn't help but bask in the madness. No, he didn't have to take in either Sam or Pick but if he didn't, then he would've missed opportunities and moments like this.

"Dude, your creepy robot thing is trying to escape… again."

Dean raised an eyebrow in the direction of Artie's bag where there definitely was something moving. He started to comment but decided it was best to just let that one go because honestly… no. just no.


End file.
